[Openmcl-devel] Swank stability [Re: A plug for nx1-combination-hook]

[Daniel Weinreb]

Terje Norderhaug wrote:
> On Sep 10, 2009, at 10:14 AM, Raffael Cavallaro wrote:
>   
>> On Sep 10, 2009, at 11:52 AM, Daniel Weinreb wrote:
>>     
>>> One technological thing I'd like to see if to make
>>> the Slime/Swank protocol be documented and
>>> stabilized
>>>       
>> good luck with that!
>>
>> sorry to be pessimistic, but I get the strong impression that it will
>> be an extremely frigid day in the nether regions when Slime becomes
>> stable, or, as someone else has put it:
>>     
>
> The Swank server protocol (ignoring the emacs Slime implementation)  
> has been reasonably stable lately. There is a flip-side to the  
> stability issue, namely that it is possible to introduce changes to  
> make Swank work better for alternative clients than emacs/slime. My  
> recent suggestions may have been the cause of most disruptions lately...
>   
There are many cases in many architectures in which it's
necessary or desirable to design an interface standard
so that (a) not everybody has to upgrade simultaneously
when changes are made, but (b) it's possible to make
improvements.  For something like the Slime/Swank
protocol, it would be best to use the good techniques
that have been developed.

One simple thing is to use versioning.  At least make
it possible for a client, such as Slime, to find out which
version of the Swank protocol is supported by a
particular runinng Common Lisp.  Keep the initial
part of the protocol, the part needed to get to the
point where you find out the version number, as
simple, and as likely to be upward-compatible
in the face of changes, as possible.  Make it
easier for clients to support multiple versions,
by making new versions be supersets of old
versions, where possible.  Things like that. It's
not very hard to do, but it requires a bit of care.

-- Dan





> -- Terje Norderhaug
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