[Chicken-users] Re: Updated objc-header.scm

[Kon Lovett]

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On Jun 13, 2006, at 12:31 PM, Zbigniew wrote:

> Kon,
>
> I've been away for a bit and am just now catching up on my email
> backlog.  It looks like a interesting idea.  However, I'm curious why
> you made NSString* and so on into macros that generate 'objc:ID etc.,
> instead of using variables.  In other words:
>
> #;2> (define objc:NSString* objc:ID)
> #;3> (define-objc-class ABCD NSObject ()
>              (+ NSString* hello
>                  (print "hi")
>                  "ooga"))
> #;4> (@ ABCD hello)
> hi
> @"ooga"
> #;5>
>
> Is this approach workable?  Do you want the extra parens to emulate
> the look of Objective C, or find the macros are necessary?

Emulate the look of obj-c. Variables are fine too.

  (- NSData* ((#:dataOfType NSString* aType) (#:error NSError**  
outerr))

> As an aside, the function macro:type->encoding provides some control
> over this conversion; the default behaviour---prepend objc: to
> symbols, pass the rest through---allows you to evaluate functions or
> pass encoded typestrings directly.  It is possible to augment this to
> provide alternate syntax, for example when you pass a list; your
> macros do effectively the same job, with just a bit of namespace
> pollution.

In practice, a lot of namespace pollution. The set I defined is  
popular but a real app would have lots of these things. Some other  
method is preferable.

> The only qualm I have about allowing type-like symbols instead of
> plain ID and PTR is that it gives the erroneous impression of
> typechecking, whereas ID and PTR spell this out.  I guess it comes
> down to user preference and, ultimately, can be loaded if the user so
> desires.

I wanted them to remind me what was coming in & going out,  
documentation really.

>
<snip>

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