[Vm-dev] Stdin/stdout/stderr support

[David T. Lewis]

On Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 10:38:18PM +0200, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> 
> Am 29.08.2008 um 22:18 schrieb Igor Stasenko:
> >
> >i mean that its better to use file handles which is available on all
> >platforms. and they actually should be open at the process startup
> 
> Maybe you misunderstood my patch then.
> 
> If the image tries to open a file named "/dev/stderr" then the VM now  
> actually returns the pre-opened stderr rather than opening the named  
> file. So this is independent of whether a file named "/dev/stderr"  
> actually does exists or not, and it uses the proper file handles.

Yes this will work, but I agree with Igor.

This approach seems too platform-specific to be included in ./Cross.
It relies on file path name conventions that apply to some (not all)
Unix systems, and that do not make sense on other platforms. It introduces
hidden and undocumented behavior (I will not allow you to close the file
stream if you happen to have referred to it by some particular path name).

Given that folks agree that the concept of stdin/stdout/stderr should
be supported in Squeak, then there is no reason not to implement it in
a way that makes sense on all platforms.  A set of three optional primitives
is sufficient, and will provide the same access mechanism regardless of platform.

For example, here is the Windows implementation from OSPP:

/*	Answer a two element array containing the sqFile data structure representing
	standard output stream for my OS process, and a flag (true or false) to indicate
	whether the sqFile data structure contains a valid HANDLE. If no standard output
	stream is available for this OS process, the sqFile data structure will contain an
	invalid HANDLE value, which will result in failures on subsequent accesses. */

EXPORT(sqInt) primitiveGetStdOutput(void) {
    sqInt thisSession;
    HANDLE invalid;
    sqInt result;
    HANDLE handle;
    SQFile *file;
    sqInt fileOop;

	thisSession = sessionIdentifierFrom(interpreterProxy->stackObjectValue(0));
	invalid = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
	result = interpreterProxy->instantiateClassindexableSize(interpreterProxy->classArray(), 2);
	fileOop = interpreterProxy->instantiateClassindexableSize(interpreterProxy->classByteArray(), fileRecordSize());
	file = interpreterProxy->arrayValueOf(fileOop);
	handle = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
	if (handle != invalid) {
		interpreterProxy->stObjectatput(result, 2, interpreterProxy->trueObject());
	} else {
		interpreterProxy->stObjectatput(result, 2, interpreterProxy->falseObject());
	}
	file->file = handle;
	file->sessionID = thisSession;
	file->writable = 1;
	file->lastOp = 0;
	interpreterProxy->stObjectatput(result, 1, fileOop);
	interpreterProxy->pop(2);
	interpreterProxy->push(result);
}