Re: [open-axiom-devel] FFI and GCL

[Gabriel D. R. <gd...@cs...>]

Arthur <ar...@ma...> writes:

| Hi Gaby,
| 
| Is the FFI supposed to work with GCL?  I've had mostly
| success (except for the limitations on the data types that
| can be passed back and forth) in using it with SBCL to
| rework the webserver using C sockets but when I tried it
| with a GCL build it didn't work.

Dear Arthur,

  In principle the FFI interface should work the same with 
all supported Lisp.  However, it appears that GCL is slightly
mode demanding in that -- for GCL-2.6.8pre -- it does not
support dynamic linking, so all foreign symbols but be built into the
Lisp image before we can even reference them -- static link.  That was
supposed to be fixed in GCL-2.7.0cvs but I have not tested.  It is this
ackward demand of GCL that pushed me to work the FFI with SBCL as first
Lisp system. 

The only workaround I see is to put all your new C functions in a either
sockio-c.c (easier) or a separate file that gets linked into src/lisp.

PS: the issue with data type with SBCL is just a modifier missing
    in the signature.  I'll address that in a different mail.

Thanks!

-- Gaby