[fetter-devel] Fetter Update #1

[Rayiner Hashem]

> A minor quibble: you say defbinding is analogous to defpackage, but do
> not make explicit the obvious, viz, that the first argument to
> defbinding becomes the package name. I mean, it is totally obvious, but
> you might want to make it explicit.

Good catch. There are a couple of things like this I need to comb
through. I'll post updated versions as I progress through the project,
so I'll update that for the next one.

> Now I could answer this myself, but I have somehow managed to lose the
> original fetter proposal: is support for VC++ planned? 

I wasn't originally planning on it, since I don't have copies of
either Windows or Visual C++. I suppose the Windows userbase isn't too
small to be worth supporting, though (tongue firmly in cheek), so I
could do it once I've fulfilled the SoC requirements.

GCC-XML will give us support for VC++ "for free" when dealing with C
libraries. What will need to be specialized for Visual C++ is the
utility library, which will have to be modified to understand the COM
ABI v-table format (the virtual table format for VC++).

> i think I recall
> that it was, but it's hazy. So as an aside, please re-send the original
> proposal to me. 

I've attached a copy of the PDF version. I've created a project page
for fetter that has links to these documents. I'll upload that as soon
as I figure out how...

> ... I think greater community involvement/feedback in these vital
> projects might help. You seem to have a pretty clear idea where you are
> going and, hey, it's Lisp, it is easy to revise as new or better ideas
> come along, but there are some smart Lisp people out there who might
> have some good ideas. So I am thinking an announcement posted a couple
> of places inviting people to track fetter (and all the Lisp NYC
> projects) might be a good idea. if the discussion itself stays on the
> fetter mailing list, I think we can avoid the nonsense i would expect
> from a discussion on c.l.l itself.

I agree. Do you have any suggestions? I don't really know where folks
interested in this "hang out".

> Heh, I just wait for things to go wrong or come up short and then
> refactor. :)

Good point. I'm trying to do this project in a more "Lisp style", but
I have to fight my C++-induced proclivity to overplan things...

> 
> Do you have a C++ library in mind as a guinea pig? 

For milestone #2 (C code), I had SDL in mind, and for milestone #3,
maybe FLTK. I wanted a GUI library, because it gives a visual demo,
but I realized Qt would be a problem because I'd have to deal with the
preprocessor. I'd eventually like to get Qt working, though.

> Something I thought
> would be useful is to create a test C++ library which exercised all the
> capabilities of fetter and hello-c. This would serve as regression test
> and even documentation, since folks suing fetter to get to c++ would be
> able to see what Lisp was used to get to each C++ component, data
> structure or function. But that could be a big job. Just a thought.

Not too big, I think. I've got a pretty good idea of the special cases
involved. Basically, you've got 3 cases for function calls, and 4
cases for class object layouts, so a couple of dozen test items could
probably cover a lot of useful ground.

Sincerely,
    Rayiner Hashem

> 
> --
> Kenny
> 
> Why Lisp? http://lisp.tech.coop/RtL%20Highlight%20Film
> 
> "If you plan to enter text which our system might consider to be obscene, check here to certify that you are old enough to hear the resulting output." -- Bell Labs text-to-speech interactive Web page
> 
> 
> 
>
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