Using lisp code in emacs inside a C program

[gnuist007]

Dear Lispers,

I wrote a humble file parsing/structure-searching program in emacs
lisp. Essentially a collection of elisp functions called by a main
function. I may need the function to grow and to maintain it. I think
its easiest in the elisp in which I started the project.

I want to convert it to an executable or a form that runs without the
need for emacs. Hence, I want to be able to take whatever lisp
interpreter code from emacs and link to it or incorporate inside my C
executable.

The main functions from the emacs that my program uses are essentially
navigation and
regexp and non-greedy wildcards, ie "*?" and multiline searches.

I dont know if any of the standard regexp library in C or C++ supports
such extended regexp. Even sed does not support it and I avoid perl.
The only other option would be javascript but I want to stay loyal to
lisp if you are able to give me enough ideas on this matter. I would
be even willing to put together a small lisp interpreter in C with
your help and then bootstrap it using Lisp etc and then dump the
binary image after it has computed rest of the higher lisp definitions
in primitive lisp and link it to my code in elisp.

There is really no gui facility that it uses. I am sure many of you
have done this kind of thing as I keep on hearing but have to go
through all the steps myself.

Gnuist

 

[gnuist007]

Try http://ecls.sourceforge.net/ which is an embeddable Common Lisp.
It's pretty handy and good at what it says it does.

Thanks for the link and the terminology of embedded.
I want to know more about the authors, but I could not find any clue.
Also, if anyone has used it and its compatibility with the emacs. I
found a file called emacs.el in it and I am pasting it here so people
can guess what it does and offer comments. What might be the structure
of the program like? Certainly, would be interesting to read the
source and if anyone has done so and if it is commented well or
obfuscated? Here the personality of the authors comes in handy to know
their motivations for the project.

Maybe, I also try to find the core file where he has written the
interpreter in C. Can anyone point it out and the general structure of
the program?

emacs.el 167 lines (153 with data), 4.3 kB

(require 'cl)
(defvar ecl-search-string "")
(defun query-replace-ecl-doc (from-string to-string &optional
delimited start end)
(interactive (query-replace-read-args "Query replace" nil))
(let ((remaining (member (buffer-file-name (current-buffer)) ecl-doc-
files)))
(dolist (i (or remaining ecl-doc-files))
(let ((b (find-buffer-visiting i)))
(unless (equal b (current-buffer))
(switch-to-buffer b)
(beginning-of-buffer)))
(perform-replace from-string to-string t nil delimited nil nil
start end))))
(defun query-replace-regexp-ecl-doc (from-string to-string &optional
delimited start end)
(interactive (query-replace-read-args "Query replace" nil))
(let ((remaining (member (buffer-file-name (current-buffer)) ecl-doc-
files)))
(dolist (i (or remaining ecl-doc-files))
(let ((b (find-buffer-visiting i)))
(unless (equal b (current-buffer))
(switch-to-buffer b)
(beginning-of-buffer)))
(query-replace-regexp from-string to-string delimited start end))))
(defun search-ecl-doc (string)
(interactive "sString: ")
(setq ecl-search-string string)
(let ((remaining (member (buffer-file-name (current-buffer)) ecl-doc-
files)))
(dolist (i (or remaining ecl-doc-files))
(let ((b (find-buffer-visiting i)))
(unless (equal b (current-buffer))
(print b)
(switch-to-buffer b)
(beginning-of-buffer)))
(print '*)
(setq case-fold-search t)
(if (search-forward string nil t)
(return)))))
(defun search-next-ecl-doc ()
(interactive)
(search-ecl-doc ecl-search-string))
(defun back-to-emacs ()
(interactive)
(switch-to-buffer "emacs.el"))
(defun next-ecl-doc ()
(interactive)
(let ((remaining (member (buffer-file-name (current-buffer)) ecl-doc-
files)))
(when (cdr remaining)
(switch-to-buffer (find-buffer-visiting (cadr remaining))))))
(global-set-key [?\M-p ?\C-i] 'back-to-emacs)
(global-set-key [?\M-p ?\C-s] 'search-ecl-doc )
(global-set-key [?\M-p ?\C-n] 'search-next-ecl-doc )
(global-set-key [?\M-p ?\C-m] 'next-ecl-doc )
(global-set-key [?\M-p ?\C-p] 'ecl-load-symbols)
(setq auto-mode-alist (acons "\\.d\\'" 'c-mode auto-mode-alist))
(setq ecl-doc-files
(mapcar (lambda (x)
;(set-buffer "emacs.el")
(concat (subseq (buffer-file-name (current-buffer)) 0 -8) x))
'(
"asdf.xmlf"
"bibliography.xmlf"
"clos.xmlf"
"compiler.xmlf"
"copyright.xmlf"
"declarations.xmlf"
"discarded.xml"
"discarded.xmlf"
"ecl.xml"
"ecldev.xmlf"
"embed.xmlf"
"ffi.xmlf"
"gc.xmlf"
"internals.xmlf"
"interpreter.xmlf"
"intro.xmlf"
"io.xmlf"
"macros.xmlf"
"memory.xmlf"
"mop.xmlf"
"mp.xmlf"
"os.xmlf"
"pde.xmlf"
"preface.xmlf"
"ref_c_arrays.xml"
"ref_c_characters.xml"
"ref_c_conditions.xml"
"ref_c_conses.xml"
"ref_c_data_flow.xml"
"ref_c_environment.xml"
"ref_c_evaluation.xml"
"ref_c_filenames.xml"
"ref_c_files.xml"
"ref_c_hash_tables.xml"
"ref_c_numbers.xml"
"ref_c_objects.xml"
"ref_c_packages.xml"
"ref_c_printer.xml"
"ref_c_reader.xml"
"ref_c_sequences.xml"
"ref_c_streams.xml"
"ref_c_strings.xml"
"ref_c_structures.xml"
"ref_c_symbols.xml"
"ref_c_system_construction.xml"
"ref_c_types_and_classes.xml"
"ref_embed.xmlf"
"ref_memory.xmlf"
"ref_mp.xmlf"
"ref_os.xmlf"
"ref_signals.xmlf"
"schemas.xml"
"signals.xmlf"
"uffi/ref_aggregate.xml"
"uffi/ref_declare.xml"
"uffi/ref_func_libr.xml"
"uffi/ref_object.xml"
"uffi/ref_primitive.xml"
"uffi/ref_string.xml"
"uffi/schemas.xml"
"ansi_arrays.xml"
"ansi_characters.xml"
"ansi_conses.xml"
"ansi_data_flow.xml"
"ansi_environment.xml"
"ansi_evaluation.xml"
"ansi_filenames.xml"
"ansi_files.xml"
"ansi_hash_tables.xml"
"ansi_numbers.xml"
"ansi_objects.xml"
"ansi_overview.xml"
"ansi_packages.xml"
"ansi_printer.xml"
"ansi_reader.xml"
"ansi_sequences.xml"
"ansi_streams.xml"
"ansi_strings.xml"
"ansi_structures.xml"
"ansi_symbols.xml"
"ansi_system_construction.xml"
"ansi_types.xml"
)))
(mapcar 'find-file ecl-doc-files)
(defun ecl-doc-revert ()
(interactive)
(mapcar '(lambda (x) (let ((a (find-buffer-visiting x)))
(and a (switch-to-buffer a)
(revert-buffer t t))))
ecl-doc-files))
(defun ecl-doc-save ()
(interactive)
(mapcar '(lambda (x) (let ((a (find-buffer-visiting x)))
(and a (switch-to-buffer a)
(save-buffer 0))))
ecl-doc-files))

 

[gnuist007]

Not to oversimplify too much, but a compiled ECL function *is* a C
function.  The Debian description of the package lists among its
features:


So it's like similar initiatives for Pascal, FORTRAN, etc.--the end
result is a C program that you can poke at with tools designed to work
with C (binutils, gdb, etc.) and which can communicate natively with C
functions.  I've not used it and have heard mixed reviews (mostly on
#emacs) about its performance relative to other compiled CL
implementations.  But if what you need is Lisp inside C, it seems this
is your bet--it can even be used to make C shared libraries, it looks
like.

Chicken, being an R5RS-to-C compiler, has similar aspirations for the
world of Scheme.

You didnt answer her question on the computer science of translation,
code flow graphing, or any useful aspect than advertising your Chicken
and she posted only on this newsgroup, while I wanted it to be in the
related newsgroups. Maybe someone can give the pertinent referenecs to
key useful papers.

G

 

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Thanks for the link and the terminology of embedded.
I want to know more about the authors, but I could not find any clue.

The current maintainer is Juan Jose Garcia Ripoll.

http://lisp-univ-etc.blogspot.fr/2012/06/juan-jose-garcia-ripoll-is-physicist.html

http://ecls.sourceforge.net/
http://ecls.sourceforge.net/resources.html

Also, if anyone has used it and its compatibility with the emacs.

All CL implementation is compatible with emacs, in the sense that you
can use emacs to edit CL programs, and you can run it with M-x
inferior-lisp RET, or even for most of them (including ecl) with M-x
slime RET.

I found a file called emacs.el in it and I am pasting it here so people
can guess what it does and offer comments. What might be the structure
of the program like? Certainly, would be interesting to read the
source and if anyone has done so and if it is commented well or
obfuscated?

Almost all projects written by programmers using emacs will contain some
emacs lisp file containing some utility emacs commands the authors use
to edit the project files.

Here the personality of the authors comes in handy to know
their motivations for the project.

Maybe, I also try to find the core file where he has written the
interpreter in C. Can anyone point it out and the general structure of
the program?

The ecl subdirectory named "src" contains:

[pjb@triton :0 src]$ ls
../ aclocal.m4 clx/ config.sub* gc/ lsp/
.../ bare.lsp.in cmp/ configure* gmp/ new-cmp/
CHANGELOG* c/ compile.lsp.in* configure.in h/ util/
Makefile.in clos/ config.guess* doc/ install.sh*

I would say cmp/ and new-cmp/ contain compilers.
The c/ contains some C sources, including a file named "interpreter.d".


Concerning personalities, I would say yours doesn't bode well, given
that you didn't fetch the sources and see that yourself. One wonders
about your motivations... ;-)