Re: async.el: A simple asynchronous framework for Emacs

[John Wiegley <jwiegley@gmail.com>]

>>>>> Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> This will execute the lambda (which must *not* be byte-compiled -- in other
>> words, don't use `function' or #') in a child Emacs asynchronously.

> Can you explain why it can't be byte-compiled?

Because it becomes an un-`read'-able value if prin1'd.

> Also, I'd guess that your package could be improved if Emacs provided
> a `fork' primitive, right?

You bet.  However, I would almost never want to fork the whole environment.  I
would want the child to end up with nil values for:

    timer-list
    timer-idle-list
    kill-emacs-hook

And perhaps even a few others, if there are post-command-hooks that might
persist data, for example.  Plus, it would make no sense to fork over the
windows and frames, as the child would be headless; nor the process list.  And
what about unmodified buffers, and file locks being held by the parent?

It would probably be better if `fork' took a conservative approach, requiring
me to supply a predicate to match the variables and buffers I wanted to end up
in the child.

John