Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!umich!sharkey!fmsrl7!art-sy!news From: chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us (j chapman flack) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: dynamic loaders Summary: Menuing system requires dynamic binding of functions w/ various args Keywords: dynamic binding variable arguments safe loading appropriate language Message-ID: <9104291705.aa09533@art-sy.detroit.mi.us> Date: 29 Apr 91 21:05:23 GMT References: <14530@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> Sender: chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us (j chapman flack) Reply-To: chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us (j chapman flack) Distribution: usa Organization: Appropriate Roles for Technology Lines: 22 Dan Swanback writes of a menuing system system that has, at run time, to make vectored calls to functions that take different parameter lists and return values of different types and sizes. He details a number of implementation approaches he has tried. I wonder if this is a case (don't take this the wrong way, Dan) of too much implementation before enough analysis. The posting devoted a lot of space to various implementation details and very little space to what the system needs to do. Perhaps there are other approaches that circumvent the problem altogether. The stated problem is *not* easy to solve in C, and a working solution will probably depend significantly on implementation- specific details of the C being used. If the project really does require the approach in question, I might suggest that C is not the most appropriate language. The solution might be much simpler and prettier in, say, Lisp, or another language with built-in dynamic binding. Just my $0.02.... -- Chap Flack Their tanks will rust. Our songs will last. chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us -Mikos Theodorakis Nothing I say represents Appropriate Roles for Technology unless I say it does.