diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'community/gsoc/project_ideas/language_bindings.mdwn')
| -rw-r--r-- | community/gsoc/project_ideas/language_bindings.mdwn | 69 |
1 files changed, 69 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/language_bindings.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/language_bindings.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c8a02390 --- /dev/null +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/language_bindings.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, +Inc."]] + +[[!meta license="""[[!toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[!toggleable +id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this +document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or +any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant +Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license +is included in the section entitled +[[GNU Free Documentation License|/fdl]]."]]"""]] + +[[!meta title="Bindings to Other Programming Languages"]] + +The main idea of the Hurd design is giving users the ability to easily +modify/extend the system's functionality ([[extensible_system|extensibility]]). +This is done by creating [[filesystem_translators|hurd/translator]] and other +kinds of Hurd servers. + +However, in practice this is not as easy as it should, because creating +translators and other servers is quite involved -- the interfaces for doing +that are not exactly simple, and available only for C programs. Being able to +easily create simple translators in RAD languages is highly desirable, to +really be able to reap the [[advantages]] of the Hurd architecture. + +Originally Lisp was meant to be the second system language besides C in the GNU +system; but that doesn't mean we are bound to Lisp. Bindings for any popular +high-level language, that helps quickly creating simple programs, are highly +welcome. + +Several approaches are possible when creating such bindings. One way is simply +to provide wrappers to all the available C libraries ([[hurd/libtrivfs]], [[hurd/libnetfs]] +etc.). While this is easy (it requires relatively little consideration), it may +not be the optimal solution. It is preferable to hook in at a lower level, thus +being able to create interfaces that are specially adapted to make good use of +the features available in the respective language. + +These more specialized bindings could hook in at some of the lower level +library interfaces ([[hurd/libports]], [[hurd/glibc]], etc.); use the +[[microkernel/mach/MIG]]-provided [[microkernel/mach/RPC]] stubs directly; or +even create native stubs directly from the interface definitions. The +[[lisp_bindings_created_by_Flavio_Cruz|flaviocruz]] in last year's GSoC mostly +use the latter approach, and can serve as a good example. + +There is another possible reason for preferring lower-level bindings: +Presently, the Hurd server libraries use the cthreads threading library, which +predates the pthread standard prevalent today. There is a +[[pthread library for the Hurd|libpthread]] +as well, but it's not possible to use both cthreads and pthreads in +the same executable. Thus, until +[[porting_the_Hurd_libraries_to_pthreads|community/gsoc/project_ideas/pthreads]] +is finished, implementing bindings for any language that uses pthreads (in the +runtime environment or the actual programs) is only possible when not using the +standard Hurd server libraries at all -- i.e. when binding at MIG stub level or +interface definition level. + +The task is to create easy to use Hurd bindings for a language of the student's +choice, and some example servers to prove that it works well in practice. This +project will require gaining a very good understanding of the various Hurd +interfaces. Skills in designing nice programming interfaces are a must. + +Anatoly A. Kazantsev has started working on [Python +bindings](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/pyhurd/) last year -- if Python +is your language of choice, you probably should take his work and complete it. + +There was also some previous work on [Perl +bindings](http://www.nongnu.org/hurdextras/#pith), which might serve as a +reference if you want to work on Perl. + +Possible mentors: Anatoly A. Kazantsev (anatoly) for Python |