[Ecls-list] Compiling Babel with MSVC

[Juan Jose Garcia-Ripoll]

On Sun, Jun 26, 2011 at 7:42 PM, Matthew Mondor <mm_lists at pulsar-zone.net>wrote:

> Is this to be able to have a large amount of static read-only data
> available at runtime?  If so, perhaps that another solution would be to
> produce object files out of binary files at build-time and link those
> object files along with the program?
>

Unfortunately the problem only arises with Microsoft's compiler, which sets
a limit in compiled constants that is very small (65k). This forbids us from
trying tricks that might be available for other formats (elf, etc), but
which would also not be portable at all.

The thing is that right now the process of adding binary data works! ECL
adds it to object files, statically and dynamically linked libraries and
programs, but it has a problem: it only knows where to find it when the code
is explicitly loaded (LOAD). I am afraid the situation is going to be as
follows

- For users that only rely on FASL files, life is easy, no need to do
anything (even if using monolithic fasl files and ECL's extensions)

- If the user is going to create statically linked programs, DLLs and other
extensions based on ECL we might need to extend cl_boot() to provide the
actual location of the executable / library. This interface is yet to be
defined.

Overall it does not look that bad: only those with special needs are
required to do complicated things.

Juanjo

-- 
Instituto de Física Fundamental, CSIC
c/ Serrano, 113b, Madrid 28006 (Spain)
http://juanjose.garciaripoll.googlepages.com
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