[Vm-dev] Re: Finalization enhancement for 4.2

Andreas Raab andreas.raab at gmx.de
Thu May 20 16:05:02 UTC 2010


On 5/20/2010 8:59 AM, David T. Lewis wrote:
> CC to vm-dev list, follow up on technical issues should go to vm-dev.
>
> Chris, Igor, this sounds very encouraging. Yes, I'll help on the
> VM side, with guidance from Andreas and others (I am not technically
> competent on this issue). I'll probably be off list for a few days,
> but will catch up on this next week.
>
> Andreas, Eliot, others - any advice or guidance?

It's the same stuff we talked about a while ago on vm-dev. I'm 
definitely +1 on it. It's simple and straightforward and solves some 
real issues in finalization.

Cheers,
   - Andreas

> On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 10:14:00AM -0500, Chris Muller wrote:
>> I have packaged up Igor's change-sets for the finalization fix:
>>
>>    http://bugs.squeak.org/view.php?id=7525
>>    http://bugs.squeak.org/view.php?id=7473
>>
>> into their respective MC packages and uploaded them to the Inbox.
>>
>> Recall the original discussion:
>>
>>    http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/vm-dev/2010-March/003958.html
>>
>> I have been running with Igor's enhanced VM and image-side
>> finalization patches for a few weeks now.  The results are striking.
>> Squeak applications using large Weak-collections deteriorate to a
>> point of unusability without this fix because Squeak spends 95% of its
>> time in the finalization process, leaving no time for application
>> processing. With this fix installed, CPU utilization is 0% when the
>> application is idle, providing excellent responsiveness.
>>
>> This is a big, big, win for any application that uses Weak
>> collections, and a win for Squeak overall because it's own use of
>> weak-collections is enhanced.
>>
>> While it seems to be backward compatible, e.g. I am able to run the
>> enhanced VM on older images (including 3.9), and I am able to run with
>> these image changes on an older VM, both are required to take
>> advantage of the enhanced finalization.
>>
>> I would like to push this into the trunk, but will need help from the
>> VMMaker developers for that piece.  David?
>>
>> For Magma, this wil be the most exciting and important fix since
>> #becomeForward:copyHash: introduced back in 2004.
>>
>>   - Chris
>
>



More information about the Vm-dev mailing list