Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> wrote:
+---------------
| * rpw3@rigden.engr.sgi.com (Rob Warnock)
| | Even better, the macro could invoke (at compile time, of course)
| | a routine that converted the external name to *whatever* your
| | preferred Lisp name was, with rules as complicated as you like,
| | e.g. (defexternal |XtGetMultiClickTime| ...) could define a Lisp
| | name of external::xt-get-multi-click-time, or whatever.
|
| I have never quite understood the desire to treat Common Lisp symbols as
| somehow intrinsically related to symbol names in any foreign language.
+---------------
Well, the situation that prompted my comment was wanting to automatically
generate a *huge* number of "defexternal"s, without having to manually
invent & type a Lispy name for each external case-sensitive name.
+---------------
| in my view, a more Lispy symbol name makes sense while a C-like symbol
| name (including case hypersensitivity) does not, the latter just being a
| string to Lisp, so I would prefer something along these lines:
|
| (defexternal (xt::get-multi-click-time "XtGetMultiClickTime") ...)
+---------------
That's fine, and I agree that any reasonable "defexternal" *should* require
both a Lisp symbol and a string for the C name. But if you have a *large*
number of external names that happen to obey some reasonably consistent
construction rule(s), why not save work by creating a macro that constructs
the (case-insenstive) Lisp name from the (case-sensitive) C name for you
automatically? Something like:
(defmacro defexternal-autotrans (string &rest body)
`(defexternal (,(my-c-name-to-lisp-name string) ,string) ,@body))
...
(defexternal-autotrans "XtGetMultiClickTime" ...)
...
Saves typing, avoids typos, etc.
You can still use the underlying 2-arg form if/when your name-mangler
runs into trouble...
-Rob
-----
Rob Warnock, 8L-855 rpw3@sgi.com
Applied Networking http://reality.sgi.com/rpw3/
Silicon Graphics, Inc. Phone: 650-933-1673
2011 N. Shoreline Blvd. FAX: 650-964-0811
Mountain View, CA 94043 PP-ASEL-IA