Re: emacs-dynamic-module in Emacs Git?

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA>]

> The branch defines both actual modules and the means to load and call
> them.  Currently they can call the Emacs core directly, so there's no
> API.  Aurélien was already asking how to define a global variable from
> inside a module.

Exactly.

By "API" I meant something like a .h file which modules can include to
define the functions and datatypes that they can use.  I.e. by API
I mean those things that the module code can do, rather than the things
that Emacs code can do with modules.

Currently you can use anything, which is clearly incompatible with
providing some amount of API stability.

> Also modules can have a license and other metadata that should be easy
> to obtain before loading them.  So I hope the API is settled to some
> degree before we merge.

The code to check modules's license and to load them should be settled,
indeed.  I don't see any big problems on this side.

OTOH the API above probably will take a long time to settle, much
longer than "before we merge" and probably even longer than "before the
next release".

Another part of the modules's infrastructure will be to provide support
for building/installing modules via something like ELPA.

So, IIUC currently we have the first part (load a module) mostly working.
The second part (define an API) will shape up as experience is gained by
writing modules.
The third part (ELPA support) is still in the future.


        Stefan