Porting guile-xlib

Porting guile-xlib

[Mark Witmer]

Hi all,

I'm interested in using guile-xlib to mess around with writing a window
manager. However, it looks like my first task would be porting it to
Guile 2.0, since it's quite old (assuming some newer version isn't
floating around in the ether somewhere -- I'm looking at guile-xlib
0.4).

I haven't done anything like this before, so I'm seeking any wisdom
anyone out there might have on the subject. A couple specific questions
for now:

1. Is there a good reference source for the old deprecated methods? I
looked up a few (eg. "scm_wta" and "scm_i_makinum") in the old manuals
going back to 1.4 but didn't have any luck finding them. I can read the
source, but some documentation would help!

2. Since scm_smob_free is deprecated, does that mean I can just replace
a line like "return scm_smob_free(child_smob)" with "return 0;" and rest
easy knowing the gc will take care of the details?

Thanks

Mark Witmer

Re: Porting guile-xlib

[Mark Witmer]

I found something farily obvious that will help with a lot of these
kinds of questions; methods like "scm_i_makinum" were accessed via
macros, so the macro (SCM_MAKINUM) is what I had to search for in the
old manuals.

Am I safe to use "scm_from_int" in its place and other general SCM
numeric functions instead of the immediate number ones? These seem to
make up a large number of the deprecated functions in use by this
library.

Mark

Re: Porting guile-xlib

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi,

Mark Witmer <mark@markwitmer.com> skribis:

> I'm interested in using guile-xlib to mess around with writing a window
> manager. However, it looks like my first task would be porting it to
> Guile 2.0, since it's quite old (assuming some newer version isn't
> floating around in the ether somewhere -- I'm looking at guile-xlib
> 0.4).

Nice!  Are you targeting the Feb. 16th anniversary?  :-)

> 1. Is there a good reference source for the old deprecated methods? I
> looked up a few (eg. "scm_wta" and "scm_i_makinum") in the old manuals
> going back to 1.4 but didn't have any luck finding them. I can read the
> source, but some documentation would help!

The Guile 1.6 manual is still on-line here:

  http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/docs/docs-1.6/guile-ref/index.html

‘scm_i_makinum’ is basically ‘scm_from_int’.

‘scm_wta’ raises an error or a wrong-type-arg error (see
libguile/deprecated.c in Guile 2.0.)

> 2. Since scm_smob_free is deprecated, does that mean I can just replace
> a line like "return scm_smob_free(child_smob)" with "return 0;" and rest
> easy knowing the gc will take care of the details?

If all the memory associated with the SMOB is allocated with one of the
‘scm_gc’ functions, then ‘scm_smob_free’ and similar can all be
removed.  Likewise, SMOB ‘mark’ functions can be dismissed in that case
(info "(guile) Memory Blocks").

HTH,
Ludo’.

Re: Porting guile-xlib

[Mike Gran]

Hi Mark




> Am I safe to use "scm_from_int" in its place and other general SCM
> numeric functions instead of the immediate number ones? These seem to
> make up a large number of the deprecated functions in use by this
> library.

Basically yes.

But when converting a scheme integer back to a C integer with 
scm_to_int and associated functions, remember that they can throw an
error if your Guile number is too big to fit in the C representation.

-Mike

Re: Porting guile-xlib

[Gabriel Schnoering]

Hi,

 > I'm interested in using guile-xlib to mess around with writing a window
 > manager.
Nice idea ! I really find its a missing feature.

Why don't you target xcb rather than xlib ?
It seems more modern (and more suited for guile ?).

Regards.

Le 27/01/2013 14:31, Mark Witmer a écrit :>
 > Hi all,
 >
 > I'm interested in using guile-xlib to mess around with writing a window
 > manager. However, it looks like my first task would be porting it to
 > Guile 2.0, since it's quite old (assuming some newer version isn't
 > floating around in the ether somewhere -- I'm looking at guile-xlib
 > 0.4).
 >
 > I haven't done anything like this before, so I'm seeking any wisdom
 > anyone out there might have on the subject. A couple specific questions
 > for now:
 >
 > 1. Is there a good reference source for the old deprecated methods? I
 > looked up a few (eg. "scm_wta" and "scm_i_makinum") in the old manuals
 > going back to 1.4 but didn't have any luck finding them. I can read the
 > source, but some documentation would help!
 >
 > 2. Since scm_smob_free is deprecated, does that mean I can just replace
 > a line like "return scm_smob_free(child_smob)" with "return 0;" and rest
 > easy knowing the gc will take care of the details?
 >
 > Thanks
 >
 > Mark Witmer
 >