OK, let's review a little#

Sat, 05 Jan 2002 13:01:58 +0000

OK, let's review a little.

I recently got reacquainted with db-sockets, while looking for a file descriptor leak in on of my araneida-using sites. It's not actually as bad as I remember it. Upcoming new version will have

• Support for unix-domain sockets
• Deprecated make-inet-socket in favour of (make-instance 'inet-socket), which should make it easier to subclass the socket classes
• Substantially changed the alien glue around so that things like sockaddrs are actually allocated as Lisp vectors instead of foreign memory. This might potentially be a little faster, as it doesn't involve jumping through the ffi hoops to allocate them; it's almost certainly a little more reliable as Lisp arrays will get GCed
• probably fixed a file descriptor leak. At least, I rewrote the finalizers to be simple enough that I understand them, and I can't actually make it leak on demand. So, that may help.

New release soon when I've removed the icky bits which assume foreign pointers can be represented in 32 bit. I'm pondering making it use asdf for defsystem instead of mk-, but I don't know yet.

Araneida got some updates too, though nothing you'd actually notice unless you have lots of traffic and particularly slow response handlers.

No news on SBCL recently; I've been dealing with too much administrivia lately to get really involved with it. I think the answer for closures might be to punt all the PPC-specific stuff and make them work exactly as the Alpha does.

There was a power cut here last night, two seconds after Inspector Morse pegged it.

"Thank Lewis for me"

death rattle

beeeeeeeeeep

click. fizz. dark. descending-pitch whirring noises from upstairs.

The house is so much quieter with no electricity. And, yes, darker.

After the usual routine checks (is nextdoor out as well, where is my torch, is it the circuit breakers, is it the meter, what exactly does the central heating boiler do in these circumstances) (yes, in the shed, no, no, pilot light remains lit but let's turn the central heating off for the duration just in case) I found the phone number for the electricity distribution company (thanks to the slightly odd way that the electricity system runs in the UK, that is not the same company as actually bills me for using the stuff) and called them. A substantial proportion of the neighborhood had apparently already done so; seems that the fuse on one of the phases had gone. Power came back an hour or so later, briefly, causing me to leap out of bed, run downstairs, turn the lights off and stop the cd player. Power came back again some time after that, causing me to leap out of bed, run downstairs (in the dark, this time) and turn the cd player off altogether.

Since yesterday I've had a headache, sore throat and general aches. I'm assuming it is a cold. So, at least I got an early night last night.