5.7 Module Rationale

The goals of our implementation of run-time bound user-defined functions were:

• Convenience: eliminate unnecessary compilation of the toolchain
• Ease: installed Makefile templates provide simple interface without expecting the user to deal with additional tools such as Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool
• Flexibility: be able to re-bind functions by simulating the same object file with different modules
• Portability: provide a consistent interface for shared library management across all platforms (thanks to GNU Libtool!)
• Safety: provide reasonable run-time type checking on functions

You be the judge of how we fared.