Re: Dynamic loading progress

[Paul Eggert]

Stefan Monnier wrote:
> he's talking about code in plugins, i.e. code which needs to be
> compiled seaprately from Emacs itself and where the .(s)o file needs to
> be re-usable with several different Emacs executables

First, in that case the value of Qabove is known at link-time, and compilers 
should be able to do a better job with link-time constants than with variables.

Second, even plugins can be subject to link-time optimization, if one's linker 
is smart enough, as gold is.

I hadn't considered either of these possibilities when adding the lispsym 
support, so Aurélien's approach of calling 'intern' is the best we can do now. 
However, I suggest packaging those calls into a function ('module_defsym', say?) 
so that its implementation can be improved later, if someone wants to work on that.

One other thing: I don't see the point of prefixing global module symbols with 
'MQ' as opposed to 'Q'.  Users of these symbols shouldn't care whether a module 
defined them, or the core interpreter defined them.