Green Card and Exceptions

[Alastair Reid]

On Friday 13 June 2003 3:37 am, Matthew Donadio wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have a couple of questions about Green Card and exceptions.
>
> [...]
>
> This definition works, but it ignores the return code from the library
> function.  The various return codes are from an enum defined in a header
> file.  I would like to throw a Haskell exception (one of the
> ArithExceptions defined in Control.Exception) depending on the value of
> "rc".

The %fail statements (described in the last few paragraphs of 
http://www.haskell.org/greencard/downloads/greencard-latest/type-sig.html) 
consist of two C expressions.  For example:

    %fail {f == NULL} {errstring(errno)}

The first is a test for failure.
The second is an expression which returns a C string.

If the test expression fails, the string expression is evaluated and used to 
generate a UserError.

> If I have to create a
> DIS, can this be shared across several modules that all need the same
> functionality?

It would be nice to be able to write something like:

  %fail POSIX_FD(fd)

where POSIX_FD is something you defined elsewhere (e.g., it might test if its 
file-descriptor argument is -1).  GreenCard can't do this.


It would also be nice to be able to generate a different error instead of 
UserError.  We'd need to specify the type and the exception constructor so a 
plausible syntax would be:

  %fail {f == NULL} (UserError (string {errstring(errno)}))

[Detail: should it be a Haskell98  IOError constructor or a non-standard but 
widely implemented exception constructor?   Should it be a function or a 
constuctor?]

Again, GreenCard can't do that.


As GreenCard maintainer, I've got to ask:
- How many users of GreenCard are still out there?
- Are you developing new libraries or just maintaining the ones you've got?
- Is there a demand for new features?

--
Alastair Reid