Remove the custom types ?

[svenssonjoel]

Custom types have the following negative aspects:

1. They contain an arbitrary pointer that need not be into LBM_MEM.
2. C code is required to create a custom type.

I propose we remove custom types. This has impact on the Display library and on the matrix/vector match library.
So one has to think up some new representation for the color type in the Display library for example.

Any thoughts ?

[vedderb]

I'm ok with removing custom types. Making images into byte arrays made them more convenient to use as they can be stored and loaded more easily. I think the same goes for the color if it is turned into a byte array. Not sure how that looks for the matrix library, but I imagine they could be byte arrays, lisp arrays or lists and the operations that work on them can check their validity.

Removing custom types also makes maintenance easier and reduces code size.

[svenssonjoel]

One backside is that custom types allows a way to create resources on the C side and have the LBM garbage collector release those resources automatically.

[vedderb]

Isn't that already possible if the C extension creates existing lbm types such as byte arrays? Instead of a custom type a given extension returns one of the existing types and returns it. Any C struct can be treated as a byte array and vice-versa. As far as I know the only thing you get is encapsulation on the lisp-side. A custom type cannot be modified arbitrarily on the LBM-side, but lbm-types can.

[svenssonjoel]

Yes. It also gives recognizably different types that extensions can check. I am not defending Custom Types, I want them gone. ;)