Re: Doc organization (Re: Around again, and docs lead role)

[David Van Horn <dvanhorn@cs.uvm.edu>]

Rob Browning wrote:

> Actually, I've been playing around with code that would make something
> like this possible (as a dumb example):
> 
>   (define (double x)
>     (c-syntax
>       (if ("SCM_INUMP" x)
>           (return (* x x))
>           (return ("scm_apply" ("scm_lookup" "+") x x)))))
> 
> and that already works for
> 
>   (%function "main" int ((int argc) ((%array (* char)) argv))
>     ("printf" "Hello world\\n"))
> 
> etc. (i.e. a C s-expression representation), but I'm not sure how
> likely it is that anyone else would find it amusing.  I can think of a
> few possible uses for such a construction (g-wrap, auto-ffi,
> "c-side"-macros, scm-to-C-compiler-back-end, c equiv of inline-asm),
> but I'm still not sure it's really worthwhile.  I might comment more
> later if I remain intrigued...

Are you familiar with the Gambit-C FFI?  This allows you to write, eg.

   (define fmod (c-lambda (double double) double "fmod"))

Type checking and conversion are done for you.  I think it's a rather nice tool.

   Gambit-C: Interface to C
   http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~gambit/doc/gambit-c.html#SEC27

PLT Scheme supports a subset of this, namely `c-lambda' and `c-declare'.

   MzScheme Compiler Manual: Foreign-Function Interface to C
   http://download.plt-scheme.org/doc/203/html/mzc/mzc-Z-H-2.html#%_chap_2

A Gambit-C style back-end to FFIGEN would be rather useful, especially if
three Schemes supported the emitted code.  I believe there has been some work
done to this end, but I can't seem to find mention of it beyond the to-do list
of FFIGEN.

   FFIGEN
   http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/lth/ffigen/

-d



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