Sweet harmony: the Talk/C++ connection

ABSTRACT

A tight, transparent, and portable integration between C++ and LISP is desirable and feasible. This paper describes the C++ interface supplied with, a modern LISP dialect which extends the proposed ISLisp standard with a module system, a metaobject protocol, and an extensive set of libraries. The interface parses C++ header files and generates C++ stub interface files, as well as TALK modules which implement proxy classes and TALK foreign function definitions for C++ functions. The programmer then has nearly complete access to the functionality of a C++ library.

REFERENCES

• 1: Harry Bretthauer , Jürgen Kopp , Harley Davis , Keith Playford, Balancing the EuLisp metaobject protocol, Lisp and Symbolic Computation, v.6 n.1-2, p.119-138, Aug. 1993 [doi>10.1007/BF01025917]
• 2: WG21/N0355 Standards Committee, editor. Working Paper for Draft Proposed International Standard .for Information Systems -- Programming Language C-l-+. internationaJ Standards Organization, 1993.
• 3: Harley Davis , Pierre Parquier , Nitsan Séniak, Talking about modules and delivery, Proceedings of the 1994 ACM conference on LISP and functional programming, p.113-120, June 27-29, 1994, Orlando, Florida, United States
• 4: Keith E. Gorlen , Sanford M. Orlow , Perry S. Plexico, Data abstraction and object-oriented programming in C++, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1990
• 5: Barry Hayes, Finalization in the Collector Interface, Proceedings of the International Workshop on Memory Management, p.277-298, September 17-19, 1992
• 6: Ilog. Hog Talk Reference Manual, 1994.
• 7: Gregor Kiczales , Jim des Rivières , Daniel G. Bobrow, The art of metaobject protocol, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1991
• 8: John R. Rose , Hans Muller, Integrating the Scheme and C languages, Proceedings of the 1992 ACM conference on LISP and functional programming, p.247-259, June 22-24, 1992, San Francisco, California, United States
• 9: Harlan Sexton. Foreign Functions and Common Lisp. Lisp Pointers, 1(5):11-26, 1988.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: C++

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: Software libraries
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: LISP

  F. Theory of Computation
  F.3 LOGICS AND MEANINGS OF PROGRAMS
      F.3.3 Studies of Program Constructs
          Subjects: Type structure

General Terms:
Languages