Better VM <-> plugin API

 
I was pretty unhappy with some places in VM, where it loads a function
from plugin by calling ioLoadFunction...
Also, even more painful to see when one plugin wants to call another
plugin function.

IMO things would be much better , if we formalize these things in VM.
An idea is simple and easy to implement:

We need only few functions implemented in VM:

sqInt makeAtom(char * name);  "registers new atom or returns id of
already existing one"

sqInt registerService (sqInt atom, void * service);  "associate a
value with service id"
sqInt unregisterService(sqInt atom);  "clear association with service
id (make value=0)"

And finally,

void * getService(sqInt atom);


Now, plugins first, should declare the atoms they would want to use or
provide. This can be done once at plugin initialization stage, for
instance:

static sqInt bitBlitAtom = makeAtom('ioBitBlt');

Now, after acquiring atom, plugin can register a service fn under this atom:

registerService(bitBlitAtom, (void*) bitBlt);
and upon unloading
unregisterService(bitBlitAtom);

now, any other plugin can do:

bitBltFn = getService(bitBlitAtom);

if (bitBltFn) { bitBltFn( a, b,c blabla); }

VM maintains a simple list of atom values and list of atom names and
their numeric correspondence.
A getService(bitBlitAtom) is very fast, because its simple access by index:

getService(sqInt atom)
{
if (atom>=0 && atom<atomsCount)
   return atoms[atom];
return 0;
}


--
Best regards,
Igor Stasenko AKA sig.

 
Igor Stasenko wrote:
> I was pretty unhappy with some places in VM, where it loads a function
> from plugin by calling ioLoadFunction...
> Also, even more painful to see when one plugin wants to call another
> plugin function.

Why would it be advantageous to write:

   static sqInt bitBlitAtom = makeAtom('ioBitBlt');
   registerService(bitBlitAtom, (void*) bitBlt);
   bitBltFn = getService(bitBlitAtom);

instead of using

   bitBltFn = ioLoadFunctionFrom("ioBitBlt", "BitBltPlugin");

Is there any reason for making things even more lengthy than they are
already?

Cheers,
   - Andreas