[Vm-dev] Squeak Inspectors

Tue Dec 10 21:12:52 UTC 2019

Hi Clément

On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 2:33 AM Clément Béra <bera.clement at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Experimenting for half an hour yesterday, I think the first step is to
> move the simulator printOop: logic to an explorer or inspector tool.
> printOop: requires an address and the simulator objects. It then figures
> out what the address is (stack frame, heap object and which kind, native
> code zone item and what kind, etc) and print the relevant information of
> the different items.
>

My thought was to create a subclass of Inspector, called e.g. VMInspector,
and have it have at least two additional inst vars, coInterpreter and
objectMemory.  Then it can simply send the messages printOop: et all to the
relevan objects as needed.  The problem with moving printOop: et al into
the inspectors is then you have to modify Slang to make sure that printOop:
et al get translated into C and included in gcc3x-cointerpreter.c et al.
Whereas if you have a special VMInspector object t that holds onto the VM
context, no changes are necessary.

I can see benefit in taking printing out of StackInterpreter et al, but
that may mean lots of overrides.  For example, CoInterpreter has to
override printOop: (or parts of it) to make sure that CompiledCode objects
are printed usefully, including the JIIT information, etc.

So if you do decide to move the printing code into an Inspector hierarchy
just remember you're also signing on for a significant refactoring of the
Slang for ensuring that debug printing routines get translated to C. This
is a warning, not a discouragement.

> I want to have that information in an inspector/explorer and that on each
> field I can click inspect/explore to get a new inspector/explorer window on
> that. Then I want to expand the tool a bit to have previous and next item
> in memory (like inspector on a heap object should allow me to quickly
> inspect previous and next object. And lastly I want a tool resistant to
> errors, because when debugging a bug memory is corrupted, and I don't want
> the tool to fail in that case but just to show me a message such as "That
> address is suspicious".
>

Right.  And so I think a simple VMInspector can provide this with minimal
change.

>
> A long time ago I extended the original inspector framework [1]. I could
> do it again in a similar way. It's just not as convenient as in GT.
>

Right.  But with Marcel's help we may be able to improve things a lot.

>
> [1]
> https://clementbera.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/how-to-create-a-pharo-inspector/
>
> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 10:25 AM Marcel Taeumel <marcel.taeumel at hpi.de>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Eliot,
>>
>> it reads like you are looking for an easier way to explore the tree (or
>> graph) structure behind the oops-object combinations. This seems to be
>> similar to unfolding an object graph by navigating an object's instance
>> variables. Squeak's Object Explorer ([cmd]+[shift]+[i]) can do that in a
>> basic fashion, the Inspector ([cmd]+[i]) cannot.
>>
>> Here are some thoughts on how to approach this challenge:
>>
>> - A specialized #explorerContents implementation on your VM objects can
>> help customizing the appearance of Squeak's Object Explorer. For simple
>> filters, the default ObjectExplorerWrapper might be sufficient. See
>> Dictionary >> #explorerContents or CompiledCode >> #explorerContents. If
>> oops would be kind of a custom class, that class could provide
>> #explorerContents to look up that oops.
>>
>> - Squeak has only one kind of tree widget at the moment, the
>> PluggableTreeMorph. As you suggested, a column-based version with infinite
>> columns would be a worthwhile addition to provide a different exploration
>> experience to users. Once available, a preference could then toggle the
>> kind of tree widget in Squeak's Object Inspector.
>>
>> - In Squeak's Inspector, the value pane is able to show text with
>> clickable links to, for example, spawn more inspectors. See CompiledMethod
>> >> #inspectorClass and CompiledMethodInspector >> #selection for the
>> mechanism. Now, that #selection can return a formatted text. So your custom
>> inspector could "style" all those oops in the printString with
>> PluggableTextAttribute.
>>
>> - In Squeak's text morphs, the double-click action cannot easily be
>> changed. Single click, however, works through text actions (e.g.,
>> PluggableTextAttribute). See Squeak's help topics (and help browser) for
>> examples.
>>
>> ~~
>>
>> So, which domain objects are you talking about? Do they all have custom
>> classes? Or is it numbers, associations, symbols, ...?
>>
>> Best,
>> Marcel
>>
>> Am 30.11.2019 22:10:28 schrieb Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda at gmail.com>:
>> Hmph, I often hit send too soon...
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 30, 2019 at 1:03 PM Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>>     Clément and I were talking earlier today (about issues around the
>>> solving of issue 444) and later on we talked a it about UI.  It has been a
>>> goal of Tudor Girba to have a VMMaker that uses the Glamorous Toolkit for
>>> richer inspection facilities, a project than makes sense to me too.  But it
>>> is one I have failed to contribute to because of issues I have with Pharo.
>>> However, richer inspection could be implemented in Squeak too, without
>>> taking on the task of porting GT to Squeak (a worth-while project I
>>> encourage anyone interested to consider).
>>>
>>> So what would be required to do something slick in Squeak?  I'm hacking
>>> up a few ideas right now but there are some things I'd like, and I'm not
>>> sure of how to get them, hence my sending the message here and cc'ing
>>> Marcel.
>>>
>>> One thing is handling double click in text so that it triggers not a
>>> selection, but some semantic action.  I'm imagining a three column
>>> inspector where on the left are the inst vars of a VM object, such as the
>>> interpreter.  In the next column is a default display of the selected inst
>>> var, for example, the output of the print: routine, which for the
>>> specialObjectsArray looks like this:
>>>
>>> 16r2FAF998: a(n) Array
>>>    16r734500 nil   16r734510 false   16r734520 true   16rD09B20 a Global
>>> #Processor -> 16r00745CD8
>>>    16rB01D20 class Bitmap  16r124FCB8 class SmallInteger   16rB02140
>>> class ByteString   16rB01C00 class Array
>>>    16rB4D228 a SmalltalkImage  16r106E708 class BoxedFloat64   16rB05380
>>> class Context   16r734500 nil
>>>    16rB04BA0 class Point   16rAFF358 class LargePositiveInteger
>>> 16r780B30 a DisplayScreen   16rB00018 class Message
>>>    16rB01F00 class CompiledMethod   16r2000B8 a Semaphore   16rB02440
>>> class Semaphore   16rAFF4D8 class Character
>>>    16r93F0A8 #doesNotUnderstand:   16r93F0C8 #cannotReturn:   16r734500
>>> nil  16r241C998 an Array
>>>    16r734500 nil   16r93F0E0 #mustBeBoolean   16rB01FC0 class ByteArray
>>>  16r116E800 class Process
>>>   16r2FB10B8 an Array  16r1365050 a Semaphore   16r100048 a Semaphore
>>> 16r734500 nil
>>>    16r734500 nil   16r734500 nil   16r980DF8 #cannotInterpret:
>>> 16r734500 nil
>>>    16rB192C0 class BlockClosure   16r734500 nil   16r100068 an Array
>>> 16r734500 nil
>>>   16r10AB350 a LinkedList   16r759080 a Semaphore   16rAFF2F8 class
>>> LargeNegativeInteger  16r2F82230 class ExternalAddress
>>>   16r2F820E8 class ExternalStructure  16r2F82D00 class ExternalData
>>>  16r2F88508 class ExternalFunction  16r2F82950 class ExternalLibrary
>>>    16r9B2090 #aboutToReturn:through:   16r9CB820 #run:with:in:
>>>  16r10BBBD0 #attemptToAssign:withIndex:  16r2FB10C8 an Array
>>>   16r2F4DF88 class Alien  16r10BBD20 #invokeCallbackContext:  16r2F51228
>>> class UnsafeAlien   16r734500 nil
>>>    16r734500 nil   16rCE3570 #unusedBytecode  16r10BBBA0
>>> #conditionalBranchCounterTrippedOn:  16r10BAB98 #classTrapFor:
>>>
>>
>> One obvious idea is to have a special menu constructed for the selected
>> item, so that in the text pane, when something is selected, instead of the
>> default "set font.../set style.../...copy (c)/cut (x)..." text menu one
>> gets a menu populated from pragmas in the Vm classes, which might include
>> printOop:. shortPrintOop:, printFrame:, etc, (and of course copy, but not
>> cut/paste), and that these would output to the sub-inspector in the column
>> to the right, which ideally would cascade.
>>
>> With the right pragma design we could render tis both in Squeak and in
>> GT, and (as I'm doing in my prototyping) the Squeak-specific UI goes in its
>> own package (VMMakerUI-Squeak) so that while the pragmas are common to both
>> Squeak and Pharo, a Pharo VMMaker isn't polluted with Squeak UI gizmos.
>>
>> [yes, this effort at cross-platform portability is probably moot given
>> Pharo's forking of the VM, but we can always hope that good sense prevails
>> and we are able to work together once again]
>>
>>
>>> Then in the third column would be a sub-inspector, so that if one
>>> double-clicked in an oops in the above display, that would be displayed in
>>> the third column.  Ideally the inspectors would cascade like they do in
>>> GT.  But for the moment I'd be happy with anything that doesn't require
>>> copy/pasting oops (the hex numbers above) into dialog boxes to print
>>> further info in the transcript window in a simulation.
>>>
>>> So Marcel (& others who are interested), at the most basic level, how
>>> would one add a double-click action to our current Inspector framework to
>>> enable that kind of interaction?
>>>
>>> How would one build a cascading Inspector as per GT?
>>>
>>> And as impetus, this UI will help us develop the VM faster, and that
>>> will get you, in time, a faster VM.
>>> _,,,^..^,,,_
>>> best, Eliot
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> _,,,^..^,,,_
>> best, Eliot
>>
>>
>
> --
> Clément Béra
> https://clementbera.github.io/
> https://clementbera.wordpress.com/
>

-- 
_,,,^..^,,,_
best, Eliot
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