On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 10:32 AM, Levente Uzonyi <leves at elte.hu> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> We have three primitives for three different versions of #flushCache:
> - primitive 89 used by Behavior >> #flushCache
> - primitive 116 used by CompiledMethod >> #flushCache
> - primitive 119 used by Symbol >> #flushCache
>
> Based on the comment in CompiledMethod >> #flushCache, and Symbol >>
> #flushCache, primitive 119 is not used since Squeak 2.3, and Symbol >>
> #flushCache can safely be removed.
>

NO!!!  This is completely wrong.  Symbol>>#flushCache is the one that
*must* be there.  The use of 116 is IMO completely bogus.  For the VM to
use 116 effectively it must be able to find the selector in the method; in
general not possible because the selector is only optional in a method,
optionally in the penultimate literal, but perhaps inside the penultimate
literal, and perhaps the method is an anonymous accessor only copied into a
method dictionary.
Caches in the VM are based on *selectors* (arguably these may not even be
symbols; see below) and flushing entries that refer to a particular
compiled method may not correctly update caches on subclass or superclass
methods.  Whereas flushing based on selector, even if it does more work,
always reliably upates caches correctly.

In general message selectors can be any object, so one could aggressively
shrink by e.g. replacing all selectors by SmallIntegers.  This was done
back in the day with the ActiveBook system, an early tablet implemented
largely in Smalltalk.  So primitive 119 should IMO be implemented in Object.


> But the method is still in the image, and it is being sent whenever a
> method is removed or added to a class.
> Is the comment wrong, or the method is really not needed?
>

 The comment is wrong.

Also the last comments in Behavior >> #basicAddSelector:withMethod: and
> Behavior >> #basicRemoveSelector: suggest that either the method's or the
> selector's cache should be flushed, but not both, which is actually the
> case in both methods.
> The comment in Symbol >> #flushCache suggests the same. So what's the
> truth? Do we still need primitive 119?


Yes, we do, and only it should be used in Behavior >>
#basicAddSelector:withMethod: and Behavior >> #basicRemoveSelector:.


>
> Levente
>
>


-- 
best,
Eliot
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