On 14/07/07, bryce at kampjes.demon.co.uk <bryce at kampjes.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> sig writes:
>  > On 14/07/07, tim Rowledge <tim at rowledge.org> wrote:
>  > > OK, you got me there. That's probably the only good reason you could
>  > > possibly have a need for a prim number!
>  > >
>  > > I suggest using 169, next to primitiveCopyObject - at least for now.
>  > > You will, of course, be making your design so nicely factored and
>  > > intelligible that it could be changed at any time without causing a
>  > > problem, won't you :-)
>  > >
>  > Thanks for advice. I making awful hacks ;) to be able directly execute
>  > code, compiled by Exupery, as primitive.
>  > The trick is, whenever compiler founds <assembler> pragma in method
>  > code, it generates call to my primitive, and puts in method literal
>  > info on what should be called. The bytecode of method is replaced with
>  > error-handling, when primitive failed.
>
> If you're running in a VM that supports Exupery then you could just
> register a compiled method with Exupery's runtime so that it gets
> executed instead of the interpreted method.
>
> Look at what Exupery does when it compiles a primitive, say
> Array>>#at:. It'll generate code that will be called by the
> interpreter (or another compiled method) and it will get the
> primitives arguments from the senders context. Only if the compiled
> version of the primitive fails will it then create a context just like
> the interpreter.
>
> In your case, if you only want this for native code the using
> Exupery's current method is probably easier and definately more
> flexible. Exupery can over-ride any method with compiled code. It has
> to as it's a native Smalltalk compiler.
>
This makes things much easier.
But i want to support different use cases:

- use generated code as native method.
In this case i think registering native method with exupery is most appropriate.

- use generated code as primitive function
The compiled code will be registered in VM as named primitive, and can
be used in other methods  by writing <primitive ... blabla>
In this case i need not to register native code with exupery. All i
need is just to place stub bytecode in CompiledMethod which will
complain about executing this method directly.

- use generated native code elsewhere (cdecl functions, callbacks e.t.c)
 A compiled native code, will be registered in separate code
repository. And result of compiling this method will be just a stub
CompiledMethod to complain about direct execution this method by
Interpreter.

> Bryce
>
>