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Re: GUILE's GC - why we struggling to solve already solved problems ? (was Re: finding the top of the stack in linux)


>>>>> "Jim" == Jim Blandy <jimb@savonarola.red-bean.com> writes:

    >> Khimenko Victor Wrote:
    >>
    >> Not exactly true. Guile is EXTENSION language, not just scheme
    >> interpreter, right ? Most application developers just DO NOT
    >> want to bother itself with any write barriers. They usually
    >> want just extension language "ready to use out of the box with
    >> minimal knowleadge". This is not GUILE in current state, I
    >> afraid.

    Jim> I'm not going to address the vague assertions about how easy
    Jim> or hard Guile is to use.

Then I will...  Guile is trivial to add to existing applications.

From an application programers point of view, the C api is easy to use
and the GC is completely non-obtrusive as long as you don't do
*obviously* stupid things (like putting a SCM in a global variable
without calling gh_protect_object).  With just a little bit of extra
knowledge, it's quite trivial to add new types to the extension
language (smobs).  And with interface generators like SWIG and g-wrap
it's quite trivial to implement rather complicated interfaces very
quickly.  And it plays well with all the languages I've run into (C,
C++, F77 in all combinations on several different architectures).

There is one exception... The only way that guile *currently* can find
the top of the stack is to by capturing the main program.  However, as
has been pointed out oh so many times, the solution is well
understood, and is just waiting for somebody to implement ( borrow,
steal, or reinvent).

Cheers,

Clark

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