gh_ vs. scm_ Interfaces

[Martin Grabmueller]

Hello all,

when trying to integrate Guile into a program recently, I came across
the problem of the different Guile APIs once again.  I was trying to
stick to the gh_ interface, but as you may well know, I didn't come
far.  Is there any policy for/against one of the APIs yet?

I just checked that both APIs are covered by the draft reference
manual, which states:

  If you are _programming with Guile_, you should only use the C
  subroutines described in this manual, which all begin with `gh_'.

  If instead you are _extending Guile_, you have the entire SCM source
  to play with. [...]

  If you are _adding a module to Guile_, I recommend that you stick to
  the `gh_' interface: this interface is guaranteed to not change
  drastically, while the SCM internals might change as Guile is
  developed.

I don't get the difference between _programming with_ and _extending_.
What doe these paragraphs mean?

It would be very convenient to have access to all those wonderful
SCM_VALIDATE_* macros when writing procedures in C, for example, but
they are not available via <guile/gh.h>, so I think using them is
dicouraged.

Please enlighten me,
  'mgrabmue

-- 
Martin Grabmueller              address@hidden
http://www.pintus.de/mgrabmue/  address@hidden on EFnet