dynamic loaders

[j chapman flack]

Dan Swanback <swanbacd at handel.cs.colostate.edu> writes of a menuing system
system that has, at run time, to make vectored calls to functions that take
different parameter lists and return values of different types and sizes.  He
details a number of implementation approaches he has tried.

I wonder if this is a case (don't take this the wrong way, Dan) of too much
implementation before enough analysis.  The posting devoted a lot of space
to various implementation details and very little space to what the system
needs to do.  Perhaps there are other approaches that circumvent the
problem altogether.  The stated problem is *not* easy to solve in C, and a
working solution will probably depend significantly on implementation-
specific details of the C being used.  If the project really does require
the approach in question, I might suggest that C is not the most appropriate
language.  The solution might be much simpler and prettier in, say, Lisp, or
another language with built-in dynamic binding.

Just my $0.02....
-- 
Chap Flack                         Their tanks will rust.  Our songs will last.
chap at art-sy.detroit.mi.us                                   -Mikos Theodorakis

Nothing I say represents Appropriate Roles for Technology unless I say it does.