Hi All,

I'd like to ask you to help me understand this: If you run the following example in the Workspace, the UI will freeze (Alt + . recoverable indeed)

s := Semaphore new.
[1/0. s signal] fork.
s wait

The reason is obvious - the example runs inside the UI and hence the UI will start waiting on the semaphore s. At the same time the newly forked process will try to evaluate 1/0 and will request the UI to open a debugger but this won't happen because the UI is waiting on a semaphore.

Now the question: Why the system won't start the debugger in a new UI? There's no 'fundamental' reason why the UI should get stuck on a semaphore instead of taking care of the new error that occurred elsewhere in the meantime. Look at  #spawnNewProcessIfThisIsUI: : the method tries to make sure there's a running UI so that a new debugger can be opened in case the UI is missing or is suspended. It feels like the situation where the UI *is blocked* has been left off - and I can't figure out whether by omission or intentionally.

I've tried to modify it like this:

spawnNewProcessIfThisIsUI: suspendedProcess
                "Initialize a UI process if needed. Answer true if suspendedProcess was interrupted
                from a UI process."
                self uiProcess == suspendedProcess ifTrue: [
                                self spawnNewProcess.
                                ^true
                ].

                "Ensure that the UI process is running."
                self uiProcess
                                ifNil: [self spawnNewProcess]
                                ifNotNil: [:p | (p isSuspended or: [p isBlocked]) ifTrue: [     "<------- here's my change... or: [p isBlocked]"
                                                self restoreDisplay.
                                                self uiProcess resume]].

                ^false                    "no new process was created"

... and the example above no longer blocks the UI !

I'm not saying this is a fix (I don't have any debugger/UI experience to fix it correctly); I'm just trying to demonstrate the functionality I'd like to achieve :) A real fix should maybe open a new UI instead of unblocking the existing one, I don't know…

Thanks very much for any input on this.
best,
Jaromir


--

Jaromír Matas

mail at jaromir.net

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