Re: [NonGNU ELPA] New package: sweep

[Eshel Yaron <eshelshay.yaron@gmail.com>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>   > I am not opposed to building on top of `prolog-mode`, but since
>   > `sweep-mode` has access to the actual SWI-Prolog runtime including
>   > notably its parser, we can (and do) provide better implementations for
>   > many of the features of `prolog-mode`, at the cost of targeting only
>   > SWI-Prolog where `prolog-mode` is more implementation agnostic.
>
> That makes sense.  But I think there is something I don't undersand.
> Some of what you said hints that SWEEP has other parts that don't run
> in Emacs.  Is that true?  If so, what do they do?

No, sweep runs strictly inside Emacs, in the same OS process.  It loads
the SWI-Prolog system into Emacs, so with sweep Emacs is able to
directly execute Prolog code (through an Elisp interface, see
https://eshelyaron.com/sweep.html#querying-prolog).

> What in the world is "the dynamic module"?  What language is it
> written in?  What does it do?  What relation does it have with SWEEP?
> What relation does it have with Emacs?

It is the same dynamic Emacs module I mentioned in my original message:

"The aim of this package is to provide a fully integrated development
environment for SWI-Prolog in GNU Emacs.  It does so by creating a
dynamic Emacs module that contains the SWI-Prolog runtime..."

It's a shared object written in C, also see (info "(Elisp) Dynamic Modules").

>   > Yes, as I would currently prefer not to require SWI-Prolog contributors
>   > to assign copyrights in order to contribute to this project.
>
> When people want to contribute to Emacs, we don't know or ask whether
> they are SWI-Prolog contributors or not.  Indeed, it isn't pertinent.
> We follow our practices.

Yes, but sweep is a development environment for SWI-Prolog, and people
may use it and want to improve it even if they haven't otherwise used
Emacs at all.

> If you want to contribute to SWI-Prolog, you should follow the
> SWI-Prolog practices.  If you want to contribute to Emacs, you should
> follow the Emacs practices.  That way, everything is clear, and each
> project is autonomous.

I think I agree, but I'm not sure what you're referring to here.


Regards,
Eshel