[squeak-dev] Re: [Pharo-project] Issue 4538 and CompiledMethod equality

Nicolas Cellier nicolas.cellier.aka.nice at gmail.com
Thu Sep 15 20:00:08 UTC 2011


2011/9/15 Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda at gmail.com>:
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 9:45 AM, Mariano Martinez Peck
> <marianopeck at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Ok, I understand. But
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 6:05 PM, Henrik Sperre Johansen
>> <henrik.s.johansen at veloxit.no> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 15.09.2011 17:27, Mariano Martinez Peck wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi guys. I am having a problem with the integration of issue 4538:
>>> http://code.google.com/p/pharo/issues/detail?id=4538
>>>
>>> I am serializing CompiledMethods with Fuel and then I materialize them.
>>> To test they are correct, I use #=
>>> So far it was working correctly, but now for the materialized method it
>>> says they are not equal. The problem is that #= is failing in
>>>
>>> (self sameLiteralsAs: aCompiledMethod)
>>>
>>> And inside that method, it is failing because     (literal1 == literal2
>>> or: [ literal1 literalEqual: literal2 ])
>>> answers false.
>>>
>>> So... why literal1 literalEqual: literal2 answers false?  from what I can
>>> say, having that selector: "literalEqual", then both MUST be equal, because
>>> they are.
>>> The problem is that it was added:
>>>
>>> Association >> literalEqual: otherLiteral
>>>     "Answer true if the receiver and otherLiteral represent the same
>>> literal.
>>>     Variable bindings are literally equals only if identical.
>>>     This is how variable sharing works, by preserving identity and
>>> changing only the value."
>>>     ^self == otherLiteral
>>>
>>>
>>> So....I am not sure I agree with this change.
>>>
>>> Any idea how can we deal with this problem?
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> --
>>> Mariano
>>> http://marianopeck.wordpress.com
>>>
>>> The change is correct, here's an example:
>>>
>>> Create a global:
>>> Global := 1
>>>
>>> Create a method:
>>>    foo
>>>     ^Global
>>>
>>> Serialize method, deserialize
>>>
>>> Change value of global:
>>> Global := 5.
>>>
>>> foo should return 5, not 1.
>>> Unless it's actually the same association as in the SystemDictionary,
>>> this will not be true.
>>>
>>
>> I understand that. In fact, in Fuel we use exactly the same association of
>> SystemDictionary for globals. Look this test example:
>>
>> testGlobalVariableMethod
>>
>>     | materializedCompiledMethod |
>>     Smalltalk globals at: #TestGlobalVariableMethod2 put: false.
>>     (self class compileSilently: 'globalVariableForTestingMethod
>>     Transcript name.
>>     ^ GlobalVariableForTesting.').
>>
>>     materializedCompiledMethod := self materializedCompiledMethod: (self
>> class >> #globalVariableForTestingMethod).
>>     Smalltalk globals at: #GlobalVariableForTesting put: true.
>>     self assert:  (materializedCompiledMethod valueWithReceiver: self
>> arguments: #()).
>>
>>
>>
>> BUT, it doesn't mean that Association is always used for globals.
>> CompiledMethod equality is failing because of the last literal, the one that
>> maps class name (symbol) and point to the real class. So...when I
>> materialize, both CMs have non-identical associations for the last literal,
>> but equal.
>
> As Henrik says the last literals are ideally #== to each other.  However, no
> Squeak dialect makes any attempt to keep the class0side associations equal.
> Look at a class-side method and you'll see it's last literal is
> nil->SomeClass class.  Now since this association doesn't exist in Smalltalk
> (unlike last literals on the instance side) the compiler merely creates
> distinct ones for each class-side method.
> Personally I don't think one can defend the position where method equality
> is different for instance-side or class-side methods so there must be some
> solutions:

Hmm, good catch.
A metaclass is never accessed by dictionary lookup, but only by
sending #class to a class, so there is no point in maintaining a
unique Association.
(otherwise, we could maintain such Association in inst. var. thisClass).
Having a nil key is a clear indication that lookup is pointless.

The question is why having an association at all in the CompiledMethod ?
For handling super sends ?
I think a simple reference to the class would be enough.
IMHO, the purpose was to simplify implementation.

And I don't think the example of Henrik is worth :
Lets just change it a bit:

Object subclass: #SuperFoo.!
Object subclass: #Bar.!
SuperFoo subclass: #Foo.!

SuperFoo compile: 'bar ^1'.
Foo compile: 'bar
   ^super bar *2'.
foo := Foo new.
Smalltalk at: #Foo put: Bar.
^foo bar

Could you predict the result (will it try to invoke super Bar bar) ?
Yes, since the last association is shared, we just broke (foo
class>>bar) for no reason...

Nicolas

> 1. special case comparison of the last literal (the methodClass literal),
> comparing keys and insisting that the keys be #== and the values be #==
> (can't just define it as keys #== since all similar class-side methods will
> be equal irrespective of their actual class).
> 2. special case comparison of the last literal (the methodClass literal),
> insisting only that the class of the literal be the same if it
> isVariableBinding.
> 3. make the compile unique class-side methodClass literals.  i.e. if a class
> already has a class-side method then the compiler or method dictionary
> insertion code must find that existing association and reuse it
> Other ideas?
>
>>
>> >From my point of view, that literal, the last one does not need to be
>> identical to assume 2 CMs are equal. They just need to be equal.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Mariano
>> http://marianopeck.wordpress.com
>>
>
>
>
> --
> best,
> Eliot
>
>
>
>



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