[Vm-dev] [Pharo-dev] Bug 18632 : Virtual Machine parameters need to be documented

Eliot Miranda eliot.miranda at gmail.com
Fri Feb 7 18:59:58 UTC 2020


Hi Benoit,

On Fri, Feb 7, 2020 at 8:20 AM Nicolas Cellier <
nicolas.cellier.aka.nice at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Benoit,
> for some reason (?), your email was marked as SPAM in gmail...
> There is a short description in primitiveVMParameter, which is found in
> generated code, for example:
>
> https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenSmalltalk/opensmalltalk-vm/Cog/src/vm/gcc3x-cointerp.c
> or VMMaker source code (you can also find VMMaker source code in pharo vm
> github repo, no time to dig).
>
> Le jeu. 6 févr. 2020 à 12:45, Benoit St-Jean via Pharo-dev <
> pharo-dev at lists.pharo.org> a écrit :
>
>> I was looking for some documentation on VM parameters (are they read,
>> read-write or write only as well as the expected argument type) and came
>> across that issue on the old FogBugz database.
>>
>
Are you talking just about vmParameterAt:[put:]/vm parameterAt:[put:] or
are you also talking about command line arguments (pharos-vm --help/squeak
-help)?
If the former, there are much more current comments in trunk Squeak
SmalltalkImage>>vmParameterAt:[put:] than in Pharo; you could usefully copy
that across. The comments in the two methods accurately specify which
parameters are read/write, and which persist in the image header.

But I agree, more verbose documentation would be very helpful; the current
documentation is very terse, and while it describes what the parameters are
and whether they are writable, it really doesn't describe what the systems
that they operate on actually do.  I'm happy to collaborate with you in
developing better documentation.  If you will do the writing I will happily
consult.  Does that work?


>>
>> https://pharo.fogbugz.com/f/cases/18632/Virtual-Machine-parameters-need-to-be-documented
>>
>> I tried looking it up on GitHub but couldn't find it.  Am I missing
>> something or I should open an issue?  I'm working on something related
>> to various memory settings and not having any info on a lot of these
>> parameters doesn't help.  While I could meticulously read tons of C code
>> of the VM and pinpoint exactly what I need to know for each and everyone
>> of these undocumented parameters, I'd gladly do it myself if any of the
>> VM guys (Clément, Pablo, Alexandre or Eliot) have notes/documents/links
>> that could help me do it.
>>
>> tia
>>
>> --
>> -----------------
>> Benoît St-Jean
>> Yahoo! Messenger: bstjean
>> Twitter: @BenLeChialeux
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>> GitHub: bstjean
>> Blogue: endormitoire.wordpress.com
>> "A standpoint is an intellectual horizon of radius zero".  (A. Einstein)
>>
>>
>>

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