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Re: API naming bugs
From: |
Marius Vollmer |
Subject: |
Re: API naming bugs |
Date: |
Fri, 30 Dec 2005 21:27:43 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.50 (gnu/linux) |
Andy Wingo <address@hidden> writes:
> 1) functions that take C types normally are named scm_c_*. There are a
> few exceptions though:
The rule is that scm_c_foo is mostly the same as scm_foo, only with a
different calling convention that is easier for C. For example, we
have scm_vector_length and scm_c_vector_length. The former is exactly
'vector-length' and returns the length as a SCM value, while the
latter returns the length as a size_t.
Functions named scm_to_foo and scm_from_foo are concerned with
converting the representation of a value between the SCM and foo
types. The names are a bit hackish since the scm_ prefix is actually
part of the meaning: "SCM to foo".
The viewpoint of this set of functions is that on one side everything
is represented as SCM and we don't need to say what sub-type of SCM is
actually required or produced. For example, it simply is scm_to_int,
not scm_number_to_int or scm_exact_integer_to_int or even
scm_exact_integer_that_fits_into_int_to_int ;-).
> - scm_from_locale_symbol[n] -- here's a confusing name, perhaps
> scm_c_symbol_from_locale_string is more apt
I agree that this is not totally self-describing since there is no
'symbol' type in C. We silently make the assumption that C-side
symbols would be nul-terminated arrays of characters, just like
strings.
> - scm_frame_begin, unwind_handler, etc -- should change because there
> is also a SCM-based scm_frame interface
Yeah, that's unfortunate. we have two things that are termed a
"frame": he things dealt with by scm_frame_begin, etc, and the frames
of a captured stack. When designing the scm_frame_begin stuff, I
didn't think about those "other" frames, and when I finally noticed
that there is a terminology overlap, ... I refused to think too much
about it since I wanted to use the nice name for my stuff as
well... Hmm. Ideally, I think the captured stack frames should be
called "stack frames".
Opinions?
> 2) NEWS talks about SCM_FRAME_WIND_EXPLICITELY, but code is (correctly)
> EXPLICITLY
Yep, that's my permanent spelling mistake. Sometimes I think it is
easier to change the English orthography than to fix my typos.
Thanks!
--
GPG: D5D4E405 - 2F9B BCCC 8527 692A 04E3 331E FAF8 226A D5D4 E405
- API naming bugs, Andy Wingo, 2005/12/25
- Re: API naming bugs,
Marius Vollmer <=