>>>>> "Ray" == Raymond Toy <toy@rtp.ericsson.se> writes:
Ray> I've been hacking a bit on f2cl, and it's now capable of keeping track
Ray> of enough information about each converted function to be able to
Ray> generate a foreign function interface. Thus, f2cl could potentially
Ray> automatically generate the appropriate FFI magic and also a Lisp
Ray> wrapper around the function for use with maxima. Still need to write
Ray> the code to actually do it, but it's conceptually straightforward.
Ray> I'd need help in writing the FFI for other Lisps, since I'm really
Ray> only familiar with CMUCL's FFI.
Ray> This is rather nice. Platforms with an FFI get fast routines, and
Ray> those that don't at least still have access to them.
Ray> What are the plans for the release? Is this something we would want
Ray> for that or should we wait until after release? Perhaps we should
Ray> wait until after the release since this has the potential of
Ray> destabilizing maxima enough to crash it.
Have you looked into UFFI? I know nothing about the details, but some
people have attempted to provide a "Universal Foreign Function
Interface" that is portable across (most) implementations that support
FFI. From what I can tell, it's a good start, but doesn't attempt to
solve the hard problem of foreign interface (interpreting C header
files, which wouldn't be a problem for your intended use).
Here's the URL: http://uffi.med-info.com/.
Liam