Hi Andreas,
On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 11:00 PM, Andreas Raab andreas.raab@gmx.de wrote:
On 12/16/2011 3:33, Levente Uzonyi wrote:
On Thu, 15 Dec 2011, Christopher Oliver wrote:
On Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:35:55 +0100
I added a tty output debug to MorphicProject>>interruptName:**preemptedProcess:, and I found that Processor>>preemptedProcess occasionally answers the system weak array finalization process. Yikes! This isn't what we want to debug at all. Are we being adequately clever in determining which process to debug?
I'm pretty sure that the currently running process is interrupted. After GC (which happens often during calculations with LargeIntegers) this is likely to be the finalization process.
Correct. To make matters worse, when an interrupt is signaled in the midst of GC, the signal will be delivered after the GC cycle completes, therefore almost guaranteeing that the interrupted process will be the finalization process.
And so the determination of the process to be interrupted is moderately stupid. What we'd really need to do is to start a slightly leaner version of CPUWatcher, i.e., instead of blindly interrupting whatever process is active, start sampling the running processes and after a short while (100-500 ms) decide which process to kick[*]. Plus, after that ensure that the UI is actually responsive so that the user can interact with the system and if not, keep kicking processes unless the system becomes interactive again. Alas, not a trivial task to be solved.
[*] A more radical version would suspend *all* user processes and let the user decide which of the suspended processes to inspect. This might have some interesting side effects though...
it's smetimes helpful to look at other systems' approaches. In VisualWorks there is no special interrupt handling in the VM; the keyboard event comes in like any other:
keyAt: keyNumber character: aCharacter alternative: alternativeCharacter down: isDownTransition "A keyboard key has been pressed or released; take appropriate action"
| keyboardEvent | (self state isModifierKey: aCharacter) ifTrue: [^self]. (self *allProcessInterruptMatchesCharacter*: aCharacter inTransition: isDownTransition) ifTrue: [^(#{CraftedSmalltalk.DebuggerService} valueOrDo: [Processor]) *interruptAllUserProcesses*]. (self warpToLauncherMatchesCharacter: aCharacter inTransition: isDownTransition) ifTrue: [^#{VisualLauncher} ifDefinedDo: [:launcherClass | launcherClass raiseOrOpen]]. (aCharacter = self state class *interruptKeyValue* and: [isDownTransition]) ifTrue: [(self state *shiftDown* or: [(keyNumber bitAnd: 256) ~= 0]) ifTrue: [[*EmergencyWindow open*] fork] ifFalse: [(#{CraftedSmalltalk.DebuggerService} valueOrDo: [Processor]) *interruptActiveUserProcess*]] ifFalse: [isDownTransition ifTrue: [keyboardEvent := KeyPressedEvent new] ifFalse: [keyboardEvent := KeyReleasedEvent new]. keyboardEvent := keyboardEvent code: aCharacter meta: (self state metaState bitOr: (keyNumber bitShift: -8)) alternative: alternativeCharacter. self addMetaInput: (keyboardEvent window: window)]
further, UserInterrupt is a signal that can be handled, and there is some special interpretation applied before raising that signal:
ProcessorScheduler>>interruptActiveUserProcess
| proc deb | proc := self runableProcesses detect: [:p | p isSystemProcess not] ifNone: [nil]. (proc isNil and: [Window currentWindow notNil]) ifTrue: [proc := Window currentWindow windowProcess]. proc isNil ifTrue: [^self interruptAllUserProcesses]. (deb := proc environmentAt: #debugger) notNil ifTrue: [^deb abortDebugOperationInProcess: proc]. proc isUnderDebug ifTrue: [^DebuggerService abortDebuggingFor: proc]. proc interruptWith: [Object userInterruptSignal interruptWith: thisContext sender sender errorString: (#exceptUserInterrupt << #dialogs >> 'User Interrupt')]
DebuggerService class>>interruptActiveUserProcess | proc | proc := self getActiveUserProcess. proc isNil ifTrue: [proc := self getCurrentWindowProcess]. proc isNil ifTrue: [^self interruptAllUserProcesses]. proc isUnderDebug ifTrue: [^proc debugger abortDebugOperationInProcess: proc]. proc interruptWith: [Object userInterruptSignal interruptWith: thisContext sender sender errorString: (#UserInterrupt << #pdp >> 'User Interrupt')]
This is a variation on having a smarter Processor>>preemptedProcess. It seems to me that using the GUI to select the active process makes sense, that when using the debugger, interrupting simulation makes sense, and that making UserInterrupt a signal is a really, really good thing, especially for deploying applications.
Cheers,
- Andreas