From: Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu>
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Returning variable "references" under lexical binding
Date: Tue, 21 May 2013 10:23:59 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <barmar-FDE050.10235921052013@news.eternal-september.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 87fvxgc2mz.fsf@gmail.com
In article <87fvxgc2mz.fsf@gmail.com>, Sean McAfee <eefacm@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
> >> (defun start-my-timer ()
> >> (let ((timer (gensym)))
> >> ;; ... (set timer (make-timer ...)) ...
> >> timer))
> > [...]
> >> (defun cancel-my-timer (timer)
> >> (cancel-timer (symbol-value timer)))
>
> > Why not
> >
> > (defun start-my-timer ()
> > (let ((timer (make-timer ...))
> > ...
> > timer))
> > (defun cancel-my-timer (timer)
> > (cancel-timer timer))
>
> Because start-my-timer sets up callbacks that may repeatedly change the
> value of the "timer" variable:
>
> ;; -*- lexical-binding: t; -*-
>
> (defun start-my-timer ()
> (let (timer)
> (setq timer (make-timer ...))
> ;; ... (later (occasionally (setq timer (make-timer ...)))) ...
> (lambda () timer))
>
> Like I said in my original article:
>
> > It's a routine that sets up a series of idle timers, storing
> > each successive timer object into the same lexical variable.
But it's not the same lexical variable in your example. Each time you
call start-my-timer you're creating a new closure over that variable.
The caller has to save that closure somewhere, so that it can pass it to
cancel-my-timer later. There's no functional difference between that and
saving the timer itself.
What you're talking about would be using a closure to implement an
object-oriented approach:
(defun new-timer ()
(let (timer)
#'(lambda (operation)
(case operation
((start)
(setq timer (make-timer ...)))
((update)
(if timer (stop-timer timer))
(setq timer (make-timer ...)))
((stop)
(if timer (stop-timer timer)))))))
(setq timer (new-timer))
(funcall timer 'start)
(funcall timer 'stop)
--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2013-05-21 14:23 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 11+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2013-05-20 20:35 Returning variable "references" under lexical binding Sean McAfee
2013-05-21 1:18 ` Barry Margolin
2013-05-21 3:18 ` Stefan Monnier
[not found] ` <mailman.112.1369106352.22516.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-05-21 5:39 ` Sean McAfee
2013-05-21 12:54 ` Stefan Monnier
2013-05-21 14:23 ` Barry Margolin [this message]
2013-05-21 16:38 ` Sean McAfee
2013-05-21 18:06 ` Barry Margolin
2013-05-21 22:43 ` Sean McAfee
2013-05-23 1:01 ` Stefan Monnier
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2013-05-21 14:41 Barry OReilly
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