Node:Defining New Types (Smobs), Previous:How Guile does it, Up:Data Representation

18.3 Defining New Types (Smobs)

Smobs are Guile's mechanism for adding new non-immediate types to the system.¹ To define a new smob type, the programmer provides Guile with some essential information about the type -- how to print it, how to garbage collect it, and so on -- and Guile returns a fresh type tag for use in the first word of new cells. The programmer can then use scm_c_define_gsubr to make a set of C functions that create and operate on these objects visible to Scheme code.

(You can find a complete version of the example code used in this section in the Guile distribution, in doc/example-smob. That directory includes a makefile and a suitable main function, so you can build a complete interactive Guile shell, extended with the datatypes described here.)

• Describing a New Type:
• Creating Instances:
• Type checking:
• Garbage Collecting Smobs:
• A Common Mistake In Allocating Smobs:
• Garbage Collecting Simple Smobs:
• A Complete Example:

Footnotes

1. The term ``smob'' was coined by Aubrey Jaffer, who says it comes from ``small object'', referring to the fact that only the CDR and part of the CAR of a smob's cell are available for use.