Re: [Scheme-reports] 6.3.7 blobs

[John Cowan <cowan@x>]

Andy Wingo scripsit:

> John!  Here I was certain you would agree, like with make-vector and
> make-string.

See the post I just sent about blobs vs. byte vectors.  A byte vector
constructor should have a fill argument, a blob constructor should not
(because blobs are typeless).

> For example, let's say I provide a primitive implementing the mmap
> syscall, and have it return a blob.  Perhaps I would like to expose a
> range of that memory to a procedure, and allow it to set the memory.
> I want a shared-state sub-blob, but "sub" really doesn't combine well
> with "blob".  Dunno!

I originally used "subblob" instead of "partial-blob-copy", creating a
disjoint blob in the manner of substring, but I decided the word was too
ugly.  Indeed, the reason blob-copy and partial-blob-copy are distinct
is that copy-string and substring are distinct, though obviously they
could have been unified too.

If I wanted shared objects, I'd go with substring/shared (per SRFI 13,
which permits implementations to return a shared substring but does not
require it) and partial-blob/shared.

-- 
Yes, chili in the eye is bad, but so is your    John Cowan
ear.  However, I would suggest you wash your    cowan@x
hands thoroughly before going to the toilet.    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
        --gadicath

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