scm interface public/private functions

scm interface public/private functions

[Thamer Al-Harbash]

Hi,

Like many other newish guile users I haven't used the gh
interface and am using the scm interface. The lack of
documentation has made me look at a lot of code to find what I
need from the new interface.

I understand the new interface is not documented because of
changes it may go through, however I'm weary of using the wrong
functions.

For example, should I be using scm_str2symbol() as opposed to
calling scm_mem2symbol()? Is there any convention in the code
that would point out what's intentionally a public interface and
what is private?

-- 
Thamer Al-Harbash            http://www.whitefang.com/
	(if (> pressure too-much-pressure)
		'flame 'work)


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Re: scm interface public/private functions

[Viktor Pavlenko]

>>>>> "TAH" == Thamer Al-Harbash <tmh@whitefang.com> writes:

    TAH> For example, should I be using scm_str2symbol() as opposed to
    TAH> calling scm_mem2symbol()? Is there any convention in the code
    TAH> that would point out what's intentionally a public interface
    TAH> and what is private?

I believe scm_str2symbol and scm_mem2symbol is like strcpy and memcpy
etc.  -- use the one which suits you more.

-- 
Viktor


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Re: scm interface public/private functions

[Rob Browning]

Thamer Al-Harbash <tmh@whitefang.com> writes:

> For example, should I be using scm_str2symbol() as opposed to
> calling scm_mem2symbol()? Is there any convention in the code that
> would point out what's intentionally a public interface and what is
> private?

The convention for all new code is that anything prefixed with SCM_I_
or scm_i_ should be considered internal.  Use it at your own peril
(i.e. at the risk of future incompatibility).  This convention is now
fairly widely respected, though I'm certain there are still
exceptions.

With respect to scm_*2symbol, I believe those are both public
functions, so you may use either.  str2symbol presumes a null
terminated C string, and mem2symbol does not.  Not that you should
have to look at the source, but if you do, you'll see:

  SCM
  scm_str2symbol (const char *str)
  {
    return scm_mem2symbol (str, strlen (str));
  }

-- 
Rob Browning
rlb @defaultvalue.org, @linuxdevel.com, and @debian.org
Previously @cs.utexas.edu
GPG starting 2002-11-03 = 14DD 432F AE39 534D B592  F9A0 25C8 D377 8C7E 73A4


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