load a dynamic library from elisp

Question

I need to use some native code and I would like to try elisp as a scripting language. Is it possible to call native functions which are implemented in dynamic library (dll in windows)? Or the only possibility to do it is to implement native code, wrap it with DEFUN (...) macros and recompile emacs?

Answer 1

You can not dynamically load a library with Emacs Lisp code. To work around this people usually call out to an external program (process) and control it by sending commands to it and reading its output.

You can look at slime, tramp, gnuserv, movemail and some other similar hacks for examples.

Answer 2

This feature exists only in SXEmacs, that doesn't has support for Windows, but in Unixes it works fine

Answer 3

GNU Emacs 23 has D-BUS support. While primarily a Unix thing, D-BUS is supported on Windows and provides an IPC system for user-level applications.

You could probably build what you want with that.