Re: [AD] font vtable patch

[Peter Wang <tjaden@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 30 Apr 2001, Eric Botcazou <ebotcazou@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> with somewhere in allegro.h:
>    #ifdef STATICLINK
>       #define AL_INTERNAL(symbol)  symbol
>    #else
>       #define AL_INTERNAL(symbol)  *(internals_table.##symbol)
> 
> This solution seems to be lighter than the previous one, but of course less
> safe.

... and we won't be able to remove/rename internals during a stable
branch's lifetime, but I think that's fine.  There shouldn't be any
alignment issues, right?  All in all, a very nice solution, at
least, if you don't hate the preprocessor :-)

> > A better idea may be just to move said ``blessed'' internals into a
> > separate header file (ainternbutnotreally.h).
> 
> But then they would still be exported with the same status as API symbols.
> Does the wrapper mechanism not ensure total binary compatibility for user
> programs using only API calls, even if we add or remove some internals ? I'm
> not sure this is the case with this solution under Windows.

Ah, right.  Resolving symbols by indices is plain stupid.