[Ecls-list] ffi broken in windows

[Juan Jose Garcia-Ripoll]

On Dec 26, 2007 11:45 PM, Dustin Long <dlong at stevens.edu> wrote:
> Looking back on it, I'm not sure if your comments on my last patch were
> correct. My patch only changed whether or not the immediate API call was
> used to reload the .fasl file (in ecl_library_open), it would still
> rerun initialization code (si_load_binary),

It has taken me some time to remember all the issues with the windows
port. Another reason why we copied the FASL files is that, once
loaded, they cannot be rewritten. Say for instance you edit file
foo.lsp, compile it and load it. If the file defines functions it does
not get unloaded during garbage collection. Now you edit foo.lsp and
try to compile it again. Windows will not allow you to overwrite the
file foo.fasl. This is the reason why the loading process in windows
goes as follows

* We want to load foo.fasl
* We copy foo.fasl to a brand new temporary file (say xxx2312.fasl)
* The temporary file is marked as self-destructing
* Things go on
* Eventually, either ECL exits or all references to the functions in
foo.fasl are deleted and the temporary file xxx2313.fasl gets unloaded
and deleted.

Cheers,

Juanjo

-- 
Facultad de Fisicas, Universidad Complutense,
Ciudad Universitaria s/n Madrid 28040 (Spain)
http://juanjose.garciaripoll.googlepages.com