Re: Emacs and Gnome Canvas

[Óscar Fuentes]

Chad Brown <address@hidden> writes:

> I think what Eli is trying to tell you is this:
>
> If you use Python, you can use the existing python<->C bridges.

I guess those bridges were made when somebody tried to add Python to
Emacs as an extension language. Do they cover the functions and data
structures that a display engine needs for talking with the rest of
Emacs? Are they up to date? Debugged? Documented?

> If you use C++, you can't count on being able to use new /delete or
> anything that uses them (which will include a huge chunk of C++, and
> probably a huge chunk of Qt).

This is plain wrong. First, there is no need to expose objects allocated
with `new' to the rest of Emacs. Second, whatever mechanism Emacs uses
for memory management, it is usable from C++ as well (for dealing with
Emacs objects, of course.)

> If I understand you correctly, you're trying to communicate the idea
> ``yeah, it'll probably be rough, but I'm comfortable with C++ and am
> willing to try to make it work''.  Unfortunately, what you're saying
> is much closer to ``how hard can it be?'' -- which leads many people
> (especially programmers) to answer the question -- and in this case it
> can be really quite hard.

Is it better to not try it, then?

Knowing how hard is it is one of the main motivations of this
project. But what drives me is just thinking that may be fun. Maybe
tomorrow I'll change my mind.

[snip]