[slime-devel] OpenGL Integration into the REPL ?

[Sean Charles]

Hello,

I am currently developing 'something interesting' using SBCL and  
OpenGL via Apple X11.

I have built SBCL and OpenGLUT from source as I am lucky enough to  
have an Intel 20" iMac and I wanted to make sure I was getting  
maximum speed i.e. no Rosetta in the way.    My 'project' is coming  
along but it bugs me that I have to keep stopping and starting the  
application in order to make changes to the software because once the  
'glutMainLoop' gets control the SLIME session doesn't respond anymore.

I had to slightly modify the cl-opengl package as it has two symbol  
naming problems concerning the roman fonts but that is the only  
change I have had to make along with the library.lisp package which  
needed to be coaxed into loading my OpenGLUT build on an Intel Darwin  
platform. Apart from that it works very well, the MESADEMOS:GEARS  
averages about 4900 frames per second much to my disbelief!!!

I know that SBCL does not currently support threading on the intel  
iMac which maybe would solve all my problems in one fell swoop.

Software:

	SLIME		CVS latest as of 13-July-2006
	SBCL             0.9.13
	OpenGLUT   0.6.3

I have spent a few hours reading the SWANK code trying to see where I  
can make changes but I am just to new to it, I have used SLIME but  
never before had a need to modify it and right now it looks a bit  
intimidating to try and figure out how to do what I would like to do  
which is basically find a way to make the OpenGL timer function and  
the display function both to 'keep the SWANK backend alive' by  
somehow calling whatever is needed to ensure that the SLIME session  
remains active at the same time as my OpenGL application is running.  
For me this would be incredibly productive as it means (if I have  
understood LISP so far [used Smalltalk for about 6 years]) that I can  
fiddle with my application while it is running and see any changes  
that affect the display be effected the next time the display is  
rendered.

Is this at all possible???

I would think that a new SWANK back end could be created.

I have also toyed with the idea of hacking the SBCL source code  
directly to contain the OpenGL libraries and somehow making the  
changes at that point but id I thought SWANK / SLIME was big, SBCL is  
enormous by comparison and I'd rather be coding my application that  
fiddling with the tools.

Many thanks

Sean Charles
www.objitsu.com