Antonio Menezes Leitao <aml@gia.ist.utl.pt> writes:
Is there a different swank function for that? (in the emacs-lisp-interface from Franz I used a lep::eval-in-emacs that did precisely what I needed).
No, there's currently no such thing. We could probably generalize the code that reads input from the REPL (see READ-USER-INPUT-FROM-EMACS) to support arbitrary calls. But this will not happen before the Great Release.
This is very useful to provide refactoring operations (that operate on the Lisp side) that need to interact with the user using emacs lisp operations such as y-or-n-p or read-from-minibuffer.
I think it is good principle to keep the interaction between Emacs and Lisp to a minimum. I'm not sure, tough, whether such Y-OR-N-P-style functions help to reduce the interactions; experience will tell.
I know that it might be difficult to find a general scheme to translate from emacs lisp values to common lisp values but all I need is symbols, strings, numbers and such.
Yes, keywords, strings, numbers, and cons trees map quite nicely between the to dialects. For other objects it's better to exchange some index or numeric id.
A few years ago I developed a 'window'-debugger and 'window'-inspector for Ilisp+CMUCL similar to what I used in the Explorer Lisp Machines. I recently adapted it to Slime+Whatever-Common-Lisp-slime-supports. If anyone is interested I can post it.
Please post the code, so that we have some examples for your needs.
1. The function swank::inspected-parts should provide a recognizable value for unbound slots. Here is one example in SBCL [...] 2. The function swank::frame-locals doesn't distinguish valid locals from invalid ones. [...]
We have this UNBOUND-SLOT-FILLER objects, but I think they aren't used very consistently, probably only for Allegro. I'll have look at it. Helmut.