Re: emacs-dynamic-module in Emacs Git?

[Stephen Leake]

Ted Zlatanov <address@hidden> writes:

> On Mon, 1 Dec 2014 17:28:01 +0100 Aurélien Aptel <address@hidden> wrote: 
>
> AA> In order to do anything useful (even in a "call-only" API) you need
> AA> access to Emacs facilities. At the very least access to Elisp data
> AA> structures (symbols, numbers, strings and buffers). 
>
> I think it's less efficient but also safer to return data as text in
> sexp or JSON format.  Exposing the Emacs internals just to return data
> seems risky.  Some modules may need that level of access, but most
> don't.

My module will be setting text properties in buffers, based on the
results of parsing the code; it's replacing elisp code that does that
now, which is too slow.

> AA> The point of compiled modules is also efficiency so the access has
> AA> to be low level enough (no big conversion or copying needed).
>
> Of course, but the difference is not that big and it can be optimized
> later.

I have moved the parsing code into a separate executable communicating
by pipes. The communication and subsequent text processing takes a
significant time; too long for my requirements. Which is why I'm looking
for a more direct approach.

> AA> For me a module package will be composed of a metadata file, a bunch
> AA> of C files implementing small and simple primitives and a bunch of
> AA> elisp files for the logic.
>
> Great.  But can Emacs find out a module's metadata before loading it?

It can if it's an ELPA package.

-- 
-- Stephe