[Vm-dev] CompiledMethod header bits index 29 (flag bit)

[Stefan Marr]

Hi Eliot:

On 07 Mar 2012, at 01:47, Eliot Miranda wrote:

> But the flag is really useful for VM/image communication.
Right, that's what I want to use it for.
Flagged methods will allow me to mark exit points from a special interpretation mode.
In that special mode, I enforce certain additional semantics, but need to be able to disable that to get back to the normal mode.
The flag seems to be a convenient way to do that.


> This is related to the above.  I've just added support to Squeak trunk for accessing the sign bit in the method header and using this as an additional flag.

Ehm, I am not completely with you. I think, I misunderstand something here, which header word exactly?

I looked through the diff of VMMaker.oscog-eem.146 and see this line:
^(objectMemory integerValueOf: (self headerOf: aMethodObj)) < 0

Isn't that the mark bit for the GC? Or am I confusing something?

#headerOf: should be the first word of every object, right?

And at least in the RoarVM (I doubt that this is different from the standard interpreter), MarkBit is defined as (1 << 31), isn't that exactly the sign bit?

Thanks
Stefan


-- 
Stefan Marr
Software Languages Lab
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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