Re: sbcl and uffi functions that return :pointer-void

Cyrus Harmon wrote:
> I know there's been some discussion of how to avoid runtime allocation 
> on SBCL for UFFI memory access, but I'm trying to declare an UFFI 
> function that returns a :pointer-void and I get a warning about runtime 
> allocation. Declaring the return type as :int makes the warning go 
> away, but this is, of course, not the right answer. Is there a way to 
> do this without the runtime allocation?

Not every runtime allocation warning causes SBCL/CMUCL to have
horrible performance. I've not tested with a function returning
:pointer-void, but typically that wouldn't cause a problem. The
runtime problem with SBCL/CMUCL is when you'd want to cast that
pointer to another type. 

What are you planning on doing with the return value? Just passing
back to a foreign function, or casting and dereferencing? If it's the
first, have you tested if there really is a performance problem [it'll
be easy to see if it is]. In the latter case, SBCL/CMUCL have serious
trouble with this and you and I have exchanged email before how to try
to work around that.

-- 
Kevin Rosenberg
kevin-HJRc7zDS/[email protected]