It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time Coding, Mostly

SoLoad Progression

When I first created SoLoad, I intended to just make available C libraries and functionality, at which point I would be done with the project.  But now the scope seems to have grown.

SoLoad has been, if not entirely rewritten, at least extensively renovated.  It now uses a plugin architecture, and a concept of "interfaces" which implement a certain set of functionality for a programming language or API.

The C interface retains feature-parity with where it was before the recent changes (but the names of commands have changed) and the Python interface is capable of rudimentary operations.

Yes, that is correct.  Python.

The new plugin architecture allows different languages and calling conventions to coexist within the same program.  The interfaces to different languages are each encapsulated in their own shared object file, making it possible to, for example, compile a plugin which embeds a python interpreter and then use that interpreter to act upon data calculated by a C function.

Currently, the Python plugin is capable of loading modules, extracting a function, and executing said function, but only if the function takes a single integer argument and returns another integer. Over the next few days, I intend to flesh out the type conversion routines so that any Python function can be executed.

Other languages being considered for support include:

• Common Lisp (through ECL)
• Scheme (through MzScheme)
• Java (through JNI)

And now I get to rewrite all the documentation.  Again.