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From: pab@lucid.com (Peter Benson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: Hash-table saving
Message-ID: <PAB.91May3123317@challenger.lucid.com>
Date: 3 May 91 16:33:17 GMT
References: <1991May03.092609.16721@kub.nl>
Sender: usenet@lucid.com
Organization: Lucid, Inc., Boulder, Utah office
Lines: 31
In-Reply-To: pberck@kub.nl's message of 3 May 91 09:26:09 GMT

There is a hack that works (I think) in lucid common lisp. 
That is make a file with just

(in-package :whatever)
(setq *hash-table* '#.*hash-table*)

and then compile that file.  
I don't know if this is required to work by CLtL.  Any x3j13 people know if
this is clarified.

The other alternative is to generate a source file like:

(let ((hash-table (make-hash-table)))
  (dolist (pair
          '#.(let ((list nil))
              (maphash #'(lambda (k v)
                           (push (cons k v) list))
                       *hash-table*)
              list))
    (setf (gethash (car pair) hash-table) (cdr pair)))
  (setq *hash-table* hash-table))

and compile that file.
This will work as long as the keys and values in the hash table are things
that can be put in a compiled file.  Depending on how fast the binary file
loader is it may be faster than just putting the values in a file.  The
other advantage is that you don't have to worry about whether all the
objects in the hash table print readably.  

-ptr-
pab@lucid.com