Dan Sugalski: # At 10:54 AM -0800 2/18/02, Brent Dax wrote: # >Dan Sugalski: # ># Details of strings, PMCs, and vtables shouldn't be exposed # to people # ># writing extensions. Strings and PMCs should be opaque types, and # ># vtables shouldn't be exposed at all, to hide the details of the # ># implementation. Structure should be completely unexposed. # ># # ># Only the core and PMC class authors should see the # vtables, and only # ># people actually writing them in C. (PMC classes written in # ># perl/python/ruby/whatever should see the interface their particular # ># HLL exposes) # ># # ># Probably a good first step for an extending and embedding # PDD, if we # ># want just a single one, is to define what's visible where, # and what's # ># black magic in other places, just so we can keep this # stuff straight. # > # >*Sigh*. Okay, then we'll need a different interface to call vtable # >methods on PMCs from outside. We can't just say "no, all # you can do is # >toss these things around, you can't do anything with them". Any # >suggestions? # # Actually, we can toss things around without letting folks do # much with them. :) # # What we need to do is make a list of things people will generally # need to do with PMCs and put together an interface that would let us # completely yank out the current implementation without affecting any # extensions. # # Getting and setting values, either singly or in aggregate, and # putting PMCs in other PMCs, is what you'll find 99% of XS code does # with PMCs. The rest is reasonably abstractable--calling methods on a # PMC and calling subs are pretty much it for the rest.
What about things like 'add' and 'match'? It seems fairly likely that you might want to do such things--and trying to add two complex numbers manually is not a pretty sight. :^) Besides, won't some extension code *define* new PMC types? --Brent Dax [EMAIL PROTECTED] Parrot Configure pumpking, regex hacker, embedding coder, and all-around good guy Check out the Parrot FAQ: http://www.panix.com/~ziggy/parrot.html (no, it's not mine) <obra> mmmm. hawt sysadmin chx0rs <lathos> This is sad. I know of *a* hawt sysamin chx0r. <obra> I know more than a few. <lathos> obra: There are two? Are you sure it's not the same one?
