Re: Text collation

[Rob Browning]

address@hidden (Ludovic Courtès) writes:

> No, it doesn't work.  In the latest `guile-reader', I have a couple of
> modules that do (part of) what the Awk script in `libguile' does:
> parsing the output of `cpp -DSCM_MAGIC_SNARF'.  I'd be in favor of
> integrating such an approach in Guile core eventually.

Yes.  It would be nice to have a more comprehensive solution for
documentation, one that can be used both internally and externally.

> Personally, I would like Guile "core" to be much more modular than what
> it is now.  I believe many things in what we call "Guile core" are there
> just because we want them to be part of the "standard Guile library",
> but they certainly to not comprise the "core" or "kernel" of Guile.  For
> instance, I believe the Gettext-related functions ought to be
> distributed with Guile core but as a separate module.  Same for
> SRFI-1[43].  Not to mention the bits and pieces that are in `boot-9' and
> that happen to be visible to everyone.  ;-)

I don't really disagree.  In particular, I think this is something we
should definitely consider as we examine R6RS.

> Now, whether each module should load its own shared library is a
> different issue.  This may depend on the module characteristics:
> size, usefulness, C programmability.  We also have to find a balance
> between lazy initialization (with `dynamic-link') and systematic
> initialization.
>
> Getting back to `(ice-9 i18n)': I'm strongly in favor of keeping this as
> a module; I am more inclined to having it in a separate shared library
> (because it's not useful to everyone) but I wouldn't mind having it in
> `libguile.so'.

I'm somewhat inclined to think that the scheme-side module is a good
idea, though perhaps it begs more general organizational questions.
I'm less certain about whether or not adding small shared library is a
good idea.  However, in both cases, I need to think a bit more.

-- 
Rob Browning
rlb @defaultvalue.org and @debian.org; previously @cs.utexas.edu
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