smobs.hh: comment the smob system of LilyPond a bit more.

[lilypond.git] / lily / include / smobs.hh

diff --git a/lily/include/smobs.hh b/lily/include/smobs.hh
index cd28a29c3f0af531de7cb954f65e538fb1c80b02..bb703e9503c4eccfe421702067ea4f91a02b1ce7 100644 (file)
--- a/lily/include/smobs.hh
+++ b/lily/include/smobs.hh
@@ -40,13 +40,27 @@
   Simple smobs are created by adding the
   DECLARE_SIMPLE_SMOBS(Classname) to the declaration
 
+  A simple smob is only optionally under the reign of the GUILE
+  garbage collector: its usual life time is that of a normal C++
+  object.  While a smobbed_copy () is fully under control of the
+  garbage collector and will have its mark_smob function called during
+  garbage collection, an automatic variable of this type will not have
+  mark_smob called, but rather have its memory image in the call stack
+  scanned for contained non-immediate SCM values.  Anything requiring
+  more complex mark_smob behavior is not suitable for a simple smob.
+
+  When you create a smobbed_copy, the _copy_ is fully managed by the
+  GUILE memory system.  As a corollary, multiple smobbed_copy calls
+  yield multiple GUILE objects generally not eq? to each other.
+
   2. Complex smobs are objects that have an identity. These objects
   carry this identity in the form of a self_scm () method, which is a
-  SCM pointer to the object itself.
+  SCM pointer to the object itself.  Complex smobs are always under
+  control of the GUILE memory system.
 
   The constructor for a complex smob should have 3 steps:
 
-  * initialize all SCM members to a non-immediate value (like SCM_EOL)
+  * initialize all SCM members to an immediate value (like SCM_EOL)
 
   * call smobify_self ()
 
@@ -67,7 +81,13 @@
 
   Complex_smob *p = new Complex_smob;
   list = scm_cons (p->self_scm (), list);
-  scm_gc_unprotect_object (p->self_scm ());
+  p->unprotect ();
+
+  Since unprotect returns the SCM object itself, this particular case
+  can be written as
+
+  Complex_smob *p = new Complex_smob;
+  list = scm_cons (p->unprotect (), list);
 
   Complex smobs are made with DECLARE_SMOBS (Classname) in the class
   declaration.