Re: [cp-patches] Patch JCL_realloc()] (late, because accidently sent to wrong address)

[Torsten Rupp]

Dear Brian,

> > > (and I thought
> > > we agreed to get rid of these kind of macros and would use normal
> > > functions as much as possible in the future.)
> >
> > When I remember right, the agreement was not to remove the macros
> > completely, but instead make them into "alias"-names for target specific
> > implementations of some OS-function. 
>
>
> I believe Mark is correct here, we agreed to turn the macros into real
> functions for debugging purposes.  And we'll probably use autoconf
> feature testing for portability.  Getting to the alias-names of some
> OS-function is a first step and then convert them into real functions.

When I understand the message from Michael from Aug-11-2004 right, we 
agreeded _not_ to remove the macro names completely (that would mean 
aicas will be kicked out from Classpath native code; I tried to explain 
this and why the macros are so important for aicas already in several 
messages), but instead make the following changes:

[part from the orignal message]

--- cut ---

> I have the following suggestion:
>
> Because the multiline-macros are to difficult to handle, we can
> replace that macros e. g. by direct function-calls. Thus a macro
> would become some "alias" only. We also can change (shorten) the
> names. For this we have to change the generic implementation. The
> advantages would be:
>
> - debugging is possible
> - type-safety
> - easier to read
>
> and for aicas
>
> - we can keep most of the code we already have written
> - we can continue to participate in Classpath
>
> For aicas this would be some compromise, because we can still use
> the target-layer. What would be still important is, that in the
> native _no_ OS-specific feature is used directly, like constants or
> datatypes or OS-functions calls. With such a implementation we can
> survive.

I like this idea. In fact I had the same in mind.

--- cut ---

Based on this idea I developed a POSIX-target layer. Unfortuantelly I'm 
currently to busy with my daily work, thus I still could not prepare the 
needed patches (which is also a difficult work). Soon I will have enough 
time I like to do this.

Sincerely,

Torsten