[m-rev.] for (possibly post-commit) review: simplify the creation of .int files

[Zoltan Somogyi]

On Mon, 18 Feb 2019 03:34:35 +0000 (UTC), Julien Fischer <jfischer at opturion.com> wrote:
> >> We do not necessarily know if a foreign type is going to be larger than a word
> >> in size, since that can vary depending on the target platform  For example:
> >>
> >>     :- pragma foreign_type("C", foo, "int64_t").
> >>
> >> I think the most useful additional annotation we could have on foreign types,
> >> would be one that allowed their size (or at least an upper bound on their size)
> >> to be specified.
> >
> > It seems you and I are in agreement, but I don't know whether you meant
> > the above to be a request for a clarification of the comment, and if so,
> > in what respect.
> 
> What I meant was that something like following is not likely to be useful
> 
>      :- pragma_foreign_type("C", foo, "some_c_type",
>          [larger_than_a_word_sized_type]).
> 
> since being word sized or not is likely to vary between target
> platforms.  If a new attribute is added then it needs to account for
> that.

Yes, I know; that comment was not meant as a *specific* proposal for
a new attribute.

Would an explicit proposal for a "MAYBE_larger_than_word_sized_type"
attribute in the comment, together with an acknowledgement that
sizes may vary across platforms, including wrt word sizes, address
your concern?

> > Did any issues come up since I committed this diff and its successor?
> 
> rotd-2019-02-15 contained this diff; rotd-2019-02-16 contained its
> successor, both the builds and subsequent test runs on
> testing.mercurylang.org haven't revealed any problems with either diff.

Thanks.

Zoltan.