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I want to switch some behavior in my .emacs based on whether I have the new native fast json-serialize which is implemented in C rather than Elisp.

Is there a simple way to detect whether a function is implemented in C rather than Elisp? I assume there must be because C-h f json-serialize knows it.

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I did C-h f C-h f and got a *Help* buffer describing describe-function as a "Lisp function" defined in help-fns.el. I clicked on the file name and searched for "Lisp function" which lead me to the function help-fns-function-description-header whose code indicated that what we want is subrp.

(subrp (symbol-function 'car))
==> nil

A bit more consideration would point to help-fns--analyze-function which disentangles things like aliasing and advising.

I think, however, that you should look at the "source" rather than the result here, i.e., check that the lisp file where json-serialize could be defined has been loaded - use featurep for that.

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(subrp (symbol-function 'json-serialize))

should do it. See Functions for details.

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  • Of course, it will report the "wrong" result if json-serialize is implemented in C but is currently advised (or if you applied to it trace-function or debug-on-entry or elp-instrument-function, or ...)
    – Stefan
    Oct 11, 2019 at 15:23
  • @Stefan: Maybe put that info in another answer? Seems like it would be helpful, if elaborated a bit.
    – Drew
    Oct 11, 2019 at 16:06
  • I suppose I could just run a timing test! (1/2 kidding)
    – GaryO
    Oct 11, 2019 at 17:39

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