[Vm-dev] How to access Interpreter code from plugin?

[Mariano Martinez Peck]

Hi. Sorry if the question is newbie. I am still reading the blue book, so in
case this is explained there I would just appreciate a link to it.

The problem is the following: I have implemented some functionality in
Interpreter to trace objects usage. I have modified all bytecodes and
different primitives and now I am almost sure I am covering all the "methods
sends". Now, I have a problem with bitOr: and bitAnd: for example.

If I do   9999999999999999 bitOr:   8888888888888888888
I would like to trace both intances of LargePositiveInteger as used.

LargePositiveInteger >> bitOr:
bitOr: anInteger
    "Primitive. Answer an Integer whose bits are the logical OR of the
    receiver's bits and those of the argument. Fail if the receiver or
argument
    is greater than 32 bits. See Object documentation whatIsAPrimitive."
    <primitive: 15>
    ^ super bitOr: anInteger

So...clearly, this will fail since both obects are more than 32 bits.
So....we will do ^ super bitOr: anInteger

bitOr: n
    "Answer an Integer whose bits are the logical OR of the receiver's bits

    and those of the argument, n."
    | norm |
    <primitive: 'primDigitBitOr' module:'LargeIntegers'>
    norm := n normalize.
    ^ self
        digitLogic: norm
        op: #bitOr:
        length: (self digitLength max: norm digitLength)


So...it will call the primDigitBitOr  in the plugin LargeIntegers

In Interpreter I put an instVar for example to flag if I need to trace or
not, and several helpers and primitives methods. The "main" method is:

Interpreter >> traceObjectUsage: rcvr
    ((self isIntegerObject: rcvr) not and: [hasToTrace])
        ifTrue: [
            self internalTurnOnUsedBit: rcvr.
            ]


Now, the problem is, how can I trace that 8888888888888888888 was used???
9999999999999999  is used, because at least one it goes trough the
#normalSend

Two options:

1) In the fail of Interprter >> primitiveBitOr:   I check if the class is
LargePositiveInteger, I mark it.  I don't like this solution because
actually I "think" it will be used, but this is just because of the
implemetnation on bitOr: in the image. Maybe it changes, I don't know.

2) Ttry to trace this in the LargeInteger plugin. I would like this idea,
but I found several problems:

2.a)  It is ok that I cannot access/send messages  to Interpreter from
plugins?  It seems I am only allowed to do to InterpreterPlugin. But, I
don't want to duplicate all my code from Interpreter to InterpreterProxy.
2.b) So my idea was to do something like this:

InterpreterProxy >> traceObjectUsage: anObject
anObject markAsUsed

And Object >> markAsUsed will just be a primitive that actually calls
#traceObjectUsage

Trying to do that, I failed because sqVirtualMachine.h was not generated
automatically, thus such struct didn't understand traceObjectUsage. For
that, I added by hand to sqVirtualMachine.h something like this:


#if VM_PROXY_MINOR > 8
    sqInt  (*traceObjectUsage)(sqInt oop);
#endif

With this it compiles, but when trying to run (actually in the start) the
image I get a bad access error.

2.c) why is not sqVirtualMemory, or let's say, InterpreterProxy methods not
automatically generated with VMMaker?  I am doing something wrong ?

2.d) I saw there are more than one sqVirtualMemory. One in
"/platforms/Cross/vm"  and another one in
"/platforms/Cross/plugins/IA32ABI/sqVirtualMachine.h"  . After testin a
little, it seems in my case it is using the second one. Why we have 2? and
why it is using the second one ?


Ok, thanks for any help you can give me and sorry for so many (and probably
newbie) questions.

Best regards,

mariano
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/vm-dev/attachments/20101013/2ff32522/attachment.htm