How can I implement a dynamic dispatch table in C

Question

First of all, I understand how to implement a dispatch table using function pointers and a string or other lookup, that\'s not the challenge.

What I\'m looking for i

Answer 1

As your Strategy.c obviously already knows about the strategy instances by name ("#include "XYstrategy.h") you could go the whole mile and use the header files instead of the implementation files to communicate your strategy to the central dispatcher:

MyFirstStrategy.h

#include "Strategy.h"
void firstStrategy( int param );
#define MY_FIRST_STRATEGY {"First Strategy", firstStrategy}

MyOtherStrategy.h

#include "Strategy.h"
void otherStrategy( int param );
#define MY_OTHER_STRATEGY {"Other Strategy", otherStrategy }

Strategy.c

#include "Strategy.h"
#include "MyFirstStrategy.h"
#include "MyOtherStrategy.h"

dispatchTableEntry_t dispatchTable[] = {
    MY_FIRST_STRATEGY,
    MY_OTHER_STRATEGY
};
int numStrategies = sizeof( dispatchTable ) / sizeof(dispatchTable[0] );

This should work on any C compiler and platform without any link-time tricks.