[Vm-dev] InterpreterSimulator and Primitive Code convention

arnaud Jean Baptiste jbaptiste.arnaud at gmail.com
Tue Dec 1 16:06:10 UTC 2009


thank

- why this choice ? it's seems it's harder to maintain that.
	- it's for used with the interpreterSimulator ?  

- isn't more simple to have all of the translate method include into the plugin which inlined it ?
	Then we must have a clean fallback code, and centralize.
	the understanding of each plugin.

regards JB


On Dec 1, 2009, at 4:15 PM, David T. Lewis wrote:

> 
> On Tue, Dec 01, 2009 at 10:01:22AM +0100, arnaud Jean Baptiste wrote:
>> 
>> On Nov 30, 2009, at 10:41 PM, David T. Lewis wrote:
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 01:28:29PM +0100, arnaud Jean Baptiste wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Some primitive have smalltalk code and this code is call only if the primitive fail.
>>>> But i have see some primitive code is using to be inline when generate the Virtual Machine via VMMaker. 
>>>> Then what is the true convention about the primitive code ?
>>> 
>>> I am not sure that I understand your question. There are methods that
>>> call primitives, and have fallback code that is executed if the primitive
>>> fails. These methods are not part of the primitive, they are just ordinary
>>> methods that happen to call primitives.
>>> 
>>> Methods that are inlined, and that are used to generate the VM via
>>> VMMaker, are a different thing. They are Smalltalk methods that are
>>> designed to be translated into C to form the actual primitives in
>>> the VM. The inlining is just a part of the translation process.
>>> 
>> 
>> Ok that was i think, but i take the example of #decompress: fromByteArray: at:  From Bitmap
>> this method can be call to execute the primitive method primitiveDecompressFromByteArray
>> And the smalltalk source code is inlined by the MiscPrimitivesPlugins. 
>> Then may be we must give all the translated methods by MiscPrimitivePlugins and put in it.
>> Then write a fallback code on all this method ?
> 
> This method is a special case. It is designed to be translated to C as
> a primitive, and it is *also* used as a normal Smalltalk method that
> first tries to call its own primitive in the VM but runs "normally" if
> the primitive fails. It was written carefully so that it will work in
> both ways.
> 
> I should mention that it is important to be careful when changing methods
> like this, otherwise you may cause dependencies between versions of the
> image and the VM.
> 
> Dave
> 



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