Vm-dev October 2009

vm-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org

22 participants
19 discussions

Profiling and delay accuracy
by Andreas Raab 06 Aug '11

06 Aug '11

Hi Folks - For a long time now I had this feeling that MessageTally reports pretty bogus results in many situations without being able to precisely track down why this would be the case. Today I was looking at primitiveResponse() and, much to my surprise, noticed that the checkForInterrupts() that used to be there for years is gone (see Squeak3.6 for example which still has it). The sole reason for this check was to get both high delay accuracy and good profiling behavior. Consider this example: fc := FormCanvas on: Display. MessageTally spyOn:[ 1 to: 100 do:[:i| fc fillColor: Color white. fc printString. ]. ]. Using 3.6 this will be measured correctly as: **Tree** 87.5% {243ms} FormCanvas>>fillColor: |87.5% {243ms} GrafPort>>fillRect:offset: | 87.5% {243ms} GrafPort>>copyBits 12.5% {35ms} FormCanvas(Object)>>printString 12.5% {35ms} FormCanvas(Object)>>printStringLimitedTo: whereas the 3.10 reports it as **Tree** 99.6% {670ms} FormCanvas(Object)>>printString 94.9% {639ms} primitives 4.6% {31ms} FormCanvas(Object)>>printStringLimitedTo: I think you can see the problem and just imagine what this does to any cumulative results. I also wonder what that change does to platforms that don't have high-resolution asynchronous timers. This used to be the one place where we would catch timer changes at high resolution and unless the platform forces high resolution timer interrupts asynchronously (by resetting the interrupt counter) we must be loosing a lot in terms of delay accuracy. (it just so happens that the Windows VM *does* do asynchronous timer interrupts so I never noticed this but I'm very curious about the difference on Linux which typically still has pretty bad timer granularity). Any opinions? My feeling is that the timer check should go back in for all of the above reasons. At the very least a quickCheckForInterrupt() is required but I actually think putting the full check back in is worth it. Cheers, - Andreas

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Joys of Squeak-dev image, VM Compiling on MacIntel and Spoon remote OtherBrowsing
by Ken G. Brown 16 Nov '10

16 Nov '10

MacPro OS X 10.4.9 Xcode 2.4.1 Squeak-dev-114-2, VMMaker 2.8b6.1, Squeak 3.8.15beta6U.app, and version 1657 of svn MacOS VM sources, and Spoon v2a12. Downloaded http://www.squeakvm.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/ trunk version 1657 for MacOS Ran squeak-dev-beta-114-2.image on Squeak 3.8.15beta6U.app Loaded VMMaker 3.8b6.1 from dev image Universes. Generated vm sources by following instructions in <http://www.squeakvm.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/platforms/Mac%20OS/vm/Doc…> Fought with Xcode wanting to use MacOSX10.3.9.sdk for ppc which was giving an error which was known and documented in the Readme. Finally figured out what Xcode wanted so built universal app just using 10.4.9 sdk. Couple issues: Exupery references remain in sqnamedPrims.h and sqPlatformSpecific.h from svn version 1657, I just commented them out. Notes said: Info-NPSqueak__Upgraded_.plist was to be found in the Developer directory. I could not find it so scammed a info.plist out of John's Squeak 3.8.15beta6U.app vm. Not sure what impact this has. And much, much diddling about figuring out various things... Finally got a build. It's a lot smaller (3.9MB) than John McIntosh's Squeak 3.8.15beta6U.app (8.1MB), and it looks like it is a PowerPC one but at least it runs. I'll look into the Xcode build process some more. Then: Replaced interp.c with Craig's interp.c for Spoon, rebuilt and got a VM with Spoon client stuff. Downloaded Spoon release 2a12. Moved a copy of Flow plugin from within Craig's naiad.app package into a plugins subdirectory where the new spoon client compatible MacIntel universal VM was run from. Followed Craig's Spoon instructions for loading niaid.st and niaid.pr into the 3.10 image (Squeak-dev-114-2) running on the new VM. Did the run spoon.app thing from Spoon.dmg (version 2a12), needs to be done twice if Safari is not running. Got Spoon processor running. Followed instructions again in the Spoon client and lo! Got OtherBrowser browsing the Spoon memory running on processor. Yay Craig! Who do i get to sign my certificate? :) Ken

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3.11.3.2135 for Unix
by Ian Piumarta 05 Jan '10

05 Jan '10

Dear Unix Squeakers, 3.11.3.2135 for Unix is now available at squeakvm.org/unix (sources plus binaries for MacOS/Darwin, Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD and Solaris, on Intel and, occasionally, PowerPC hardware). Some important stuff has changed in this release (see notes below) so please consider it a BETA release even though there is no beta tag on the version number. As usual: comments, suggestions, bug fixes (as whole files please *not* diffs) and any unwanted vinyl LPs sitting in your attic can be sent directly to me. Thanks. Enjoy! Ian Changes since 3.10-6: Numbering scheme changed to X.Y.Z.R where X.Y.Z = VMMaker version used to generate the Interpreter and R is the subversion revision of the platform support code. VMMaker and plugins updated to most recent versions; generated source regenerated: Balloon3D-Plugins-ar.4.mcz DBus-Plugin-bf.32.mcz GStreamer-Plugins-JMM.16.mcz Kedama-Plugins-yo.1.mcz Rome-Plugin-yo.39.mcz OSProcessPlugin-dtl.16.mcz VMConstruction-Plugins-AioPlugin-dtl.9.mcz VMConstruction-Plugins-XDisplayControlPlugin-dtl.7.mcz VMMaker-dtl.138.mcz Build system rewritten using CMake instead of autotools. Big THANK-YOU to Bert, Subbu and Dave Lewis for providing invaluable feedback. Any plugin can now be turned off in configure with the option '--without-<pluginName>'. Experimental PulseAudio driver (vm-sound-pulse) added, thanks to Derek O'Connell. Default is still OSS on Linux; if you want pulse you have to ask for it in one of the usual ways. FFI tweaked on Linux to avoid a potential FPU stack overflow. ClipboardExtendedPlugin will no longer try to build if you don't have X11 development headers and libs. FileCopyPlugin made resilient to EINTR. VM renamed to 'squeakvm'. 'squeak' is now a script that looks for 'squeakvm', figures out if you need any obscure command-line options, and then launches 'squeakvm' for you. This in turn allows... Plugin search stretegy rationalised and simplified. Default location is now the executable directory (where 'squeakvm' is installed). The -plugins argument can be a colon-separated list of locations to search, just like PATH. Plugins are named 'so.plugin' to make interference with FFI libraries less likely. NOTE: FFI libraries are no longer searched for in every single nook and cranny, which means you might have to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or your local equivalent) for FFI-based programs to work properly. Failure to load a plugin because of unresolved symbols is now always reported on the terminal. Another script 'squeak.sh' is provided for launching squeak from a menu. This isn't finished and suggestions are welcome. Default path and text encoding is now UTF-8. X11 driver no longer reports SHIFT pressed when CAPS LOCK engaged. SerialPlugin now supports named ports. All occurences of dprintf() renamed to avoid a name conflict with a less-than-stellar decision by POSIX to introduce a standard function of the same name. RomePlugin is no longer built if cairo was built without Pango support. iconv_open() no longer spams you with thousands of error messages if you are missing conversion tables. Valid unicode characters that have no corresponding keycode are reported with keycode zero to avoid an invalid index error in the image. XImmPlugin should now work on MacOS X/Darwin too. Sound driver on MacOS X now works on Intel as well as PowerPC. Various changes to make the VM compile and run on GNU/Linux running on DEC Alpha. vm-sound-Sun now uses asynchronous i/o. Various changes to fix compilation on Solaris.

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Fwd: Mirror primitives [Was The better debugger support by extending an Object protocol]
by Eliot Miranda 16 Dec '09

16 Dec '09

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 11:56 AM Subject: Mirror primitives [Was The better debugger support by extending an Object protocol] To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list <squeak-dev(a)lists.squeakfoundation.org> Hi Igor, On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 10:29 AM, Igor Stasenko <siguctua(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > 2009/9/7 Bert Freudenberg <bert(a)freudenbergs.de>: > > > > On 07.09.2009, at 18:40, Randal L. Schwartz wrote: > > > >>>>>>> "Igor" == Igor Stasenko <siguctua(a)gmail.com> writes: > >> > >> Igor> Here is the default implementation of > >> > >> Object> debugPrintOn: aStream > >> Igor> ^ self printOn: aStream > >> > >> I like it, but I don't like the name. It conjurs up the idea of debugging > >> the #printOn: method itself. > >> > >> maybe #printForDebuggerOn: ? > > > > > > It matches the other methods like #longPrintOn: though. > > > > Also that would imply only the debugger invokes it, when it's clearly > > appropriate for any purpose. > > > > However, apart from this bike shedding ;) do others think it's a good idea > > in general? IMHO #printOn: is primarily used for debugging anyway so I > > wouldn't really expect a separate debug print method to be needed. Debugging > > transparent proxies isn't for the faint-of-heart anyway, so these developers > > can adapt their tools and proxies I would guess. OTOH there is precedence in > > e.g. #asExplorerString, which exists solely to get rid of the quotes > > enclosing strings for aesthetic reasons ... > > > > I agree with you Bert, that we should consider if its really necessary. > While #printOn: is used by most code for debugging, some of the code > using it to serialize object to textual stream, so the #printOn: usage > is much more generic than just debugging. > > As for debugging the transparent proxies - yes you can make own > tools.. but this means reimplementing/hacking > other tools , like debugger, inspector and so on, which will probably > end up with similar solution to what i proposing. > > For example, there was a point of discrepancy with debugging the code > which uses Magma. > The magma forwarding proxy reifying the object once the first real > message is sent to it. > And the problem with such a proxy, that you can't use them in certain > situations, like: > > self perform: aSelectorProxied with: #foo > > because #perform doesn't sends the messages to aSelectorProxied and > primitive fails. But then, when you entering the debugger and trying > to figure out why its not working - a proxy becomes a real object when > it printed out.. and so you can't debug the error using debugger. > Which leaves you to wonder, why code works in debugger, but not > working at run time :) I have fixes for this integrated in Qwaq. This is work I did for VisualWorks a while back. The idea is to add a set of mirror primitives, so called because they do reflection, to ContextPart. These primitives implement the basic operations of the object model needed for execution simulation, fetching an object's class, accessing its named and indexed instance variables, and the number of indexed instance variables, sending a message, but they take the object operated on as a parameter and so do function without sending messages to that object. These primitives are then used by the execution simulation machinery to correctly simulate the execution of the virtual machine irrespective of the class and/or messages implemented by the receiver. For example, (eschewing HTML for Bert's contentment) ContextPart methods for mirror primitives object: anObject instVarAt: anIndex "Primitive. Answer a fixed variable in an object. The numbering of the variables corresponds to the named instance variables. Fail if the index is not an Integer or is not the index of a fixed variable. Essential for the debugger. See Object documentation whatIsAPrimitive." <primitive: 73> "Access beyond fixed variables." ^self object: anObject basicAt: anIndex - (self objectClass: anObject) instSize object: anObject instVarAt: anIndex put: aValue "Primitive. Store a value into a fixed variable in the argument anObject. The numbering of the variables corresponds to the named instance variables. Fail if the index is not an Integer or is not the index of a fixed variable. Answer the value stored as the result. Using this message violates the principle that each object has sovereign control over the storing of values into its instance variables. Essential for the debugger. See Object documentation whatIsAPrimitive." <primitive: 74> "Access beyond fixed fields" ^self object: anObject basicAt: anIndex - (self objectClass: anObject) instSize put: aValue ContextPart methods for instruction decoding pushReceiverVariable: offset "Simulate the action of bytecode that pushes the contents of the receiver's instance variable whose index is the argument, index, on the top of the stack." self push: (self object: self receiver instVarAt: offset + 1) popIntoReceiverVariable: offset "Simulate the action of bytecode that removes the top of the stack and stores it into an instance variable of my receiver." self object: self receiver instVarAt: offset + 1 put: self pop storeIntoReceiverVariable: offset "Simulate the action of bytecode that stores the top of the stack into an instance variable of my receiver." self object: self receiver instVarAt: offset + 1 put: self top The attached change set for the image level code is also conflated with changes that allow the debugger to set the primitive error code correctly. The VM also needs to implement the primitives. If the order of the arguments are the same as those of the corresponding non-reflective primitive (e.g. aContext object: theReceiver instVarAt: index put: value has the same order as theReceiver instVarAt: index put: value) and the primitive pops back the stack using self pop: argumentCount + 1, one can use the same VM primitive implementations as the non-reflective ones and so avoid needing extra primitives. However, not all primitives are correctly implemented; e.g. at: and at:put: are, but size is not. So before we can use this there is some work to do in the standard VMs. I'm attaching here the implementation in the Stack VM which will require some back porting to the standard VM. None of these changes has performance implications because the special selector impelmentations of at: at:put: size and #== are not affected. With the above changes one can safely step through code that uses proxies that do not inherit from Object, or even ProtoObject. I still need to implement a PrimitiveObjectInspector, or use the mirror primitives in implementing the Inspector. However, there is one more important thing needed in the debugger which these changes do not address and that is the value of Processor activeProcess within the debugger. e.g. "print it" the following: | thisProcessOutsideTheDebugger thisProcessInsideTheDebugger | thisProcessOutsideTheDebugger := Processor activeProcess. self halt. thisProcessInsideTheDebugger := Processor activeProcess. 'Send to here (Into) then proceed'. thisProcessOutsideTheDebugger == thisProcessInsideTheDebugger This will potentially break debugging of servers that maintain process pools. Andreas has proposed a very simple fix for this. Add an instance variable to Process called, e.g. effectiveProcess, which is nil in normal processes. When the debugger runs it sets effectiveProcess to that of the process which it is debugging and Processor activeProcess is implemented as something like ProcessorScheduler methods for accessing activeProcess ^activeProcess effectiveProcess ifNil: [activeProcess] I'll try and get round to this soon. I'm posting this rather than integrating because a) the VMs need to get updated before we can use the image level code and, b) the VM folks need code to test their VMs with. I'm happy to integrate the image-level changes once the VMs have been upgraded. best Eliot > > > > > - Bert - > > > > > -- > Best regards, > Igor Stasenko AKA sig. >

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Performance, Quality and Process [was Array new: SmallInteger maxVal]
by Eliot Miranda 20 Nov '09

20 Nov '09

Hi All, I'm not happy with this fix and I'm not happy with the lack of process behind it. First there has been insufficient discussion of what the right behaviour is. Second, the fix David has written does lots of computation (shifts) to check a valid size request that could be pushed earlier at initialization time, which would allow e.g. a vmParameterAt:put: to modify the max allocation request size. Third, there is no review of fixes; we just put them out there. I'm concerned about performance, code quality and a lack of process for agreeing fixes. But at the same time I don't want to institute a bureaucracy or slow down the pace of development. Do others share my concerns? What suggestions have you? One problem here is that Cog will introduce a huge raft of changes to the VM and to Slang, and so possibly the whole issue is moot. We'll face the issues as we try and integrate my Cog VM into the squeakvm trunk. But it might be worth thinking a little about the issues up front. David, I know you're technical lead, and I'm not trying to depose or undermine you. But I do think we can benefit from discussion and review of major changes. Alas, my Cog work not being generaly available yet is going to cause problems down the line. I need to at least hurry up and get the StackInterpreter released. On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 7:39 PM, David T. Lewis <lewis(a)mail.msen.com> wrote: > > On Tue, Oct 06, 2009 at 06:58:30PM -0400, David T. Lewis wrote: > > > > On Tue, Oct 06, 2009 at 10:05:02PM +0200, Nicolas Cellier wrote: > > > > > > >From http://code.google.com/p/pharo/issues/detail?id=1282 > > > Is this known? > > > > Thanks, it's known now :) > > > > Also added to Mantis at http://bugs.squeak.org/view.php?id=7405. > > > > Petr: Yes this is definitely a cool bug. > > A fix for this is on Mantis 7405 (http://bugs.squeak.org/view.php?id=7405 > ). > > The VMMaker updates are in SqueakSource in VMMaker-dtl.142. > > A separate patch is needed for platforms/unix/vm/sqUnixMemory.c (see the > Mantis report, patch also sent to Ian). > > I have not tested Windows or Mac OS, but the basic scenario now is that > the VM will limit the size of memory increase requests to 31 bit integer > so support code can check for overflows. The requests from the VM are > guaranteed (I hope) be valid 31 bit integers. > > Allocation requests of > 950 MB seem to be possible, although I do not > have enough memory on my PC to verify that it actually works. > > Limiting allocation requests to more reasonable limits would be the > responsibility of the image. > > Dave > >

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Integer overflow with BitBlt rule 20 and depth 32
by Henrik Johansen 04 Nov '09

04 Nov '09

Any combination of alpha values with a sum greater than 383 will cause an overflow, and return an alpha of sum - 255. Works correctly in BitBltSimulator, but the generated x86 C-code fails. Reproduced on latest versions of both Windows and MacOSX VMs. (I don't have a Linux install) Not quite sure of the best way to fix this (and possibly other similarily effected rules when depth is 32) Cheers, Henry Tests: sourceForm destForm blt| destForm := Form extent: 1@1 depth: 32. destForm bits at: 1 put: ((192 << 24) + (255 << 16) + (255 << 8) + 255). sourceForm := Form extent: 1@1 depth: 32. sourceForm bits at: 1 put: ((192 << 24) + (33 << 16) + (25 << 8) + 27). blt := BitBlt new. blt sourceForm: sourceForm. blt sourceOrigin: 0@0. blt setDestForm: destForm. blt destOrigin: 0@0. blt combinationRule: 20. blt copyBits. ((blt destForm bits at: 1) digitAt: 4) = 255 - Using Simulator: |word1 word2| word1 := (192 << 24) + (255 << 16) + (255 << 8) + 255. word2 := (192 << 24) + (33 << 16) + (25 << 8) + 27. ((BitBltSimulator new initBBOpTable partitionedAdd: word1 to: word2 nBits: 8 nPartitions: 4) digitAt: 4) = 255

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Win32 VM Service facility broken?
by Torsten Bergmann 29 Oct '09

29 Oct '09

see http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/vm-dev/2009-October/003289.html Any answers on this? At least anyone able to test on Windows? Thanks Torsten -- Jetzt kostenlos herunterladen: Internet Explorer 8 und Mozilla Firefox 3.5 - sicherer, schneller und einfacher! http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/atbrowser

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Managed to compile "something" for Android...
by Göran Krampe 27 Oct '09

27 Oct '09

Hi all! I managed using some small hacks in the new CMake files + using a project called ndk-wrappers (that makes the regular Android NDK behave more like a regular build env capable of producing executables) to stab myself through the Squeak VM build and get this: gokr@yoda:/media/ten/sqdroid/Squeak-3.11.3.2135-src/droid$ file squeakvm squeakvm: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, not stripped gokr@yoda:/media/ten/sqdroid/Squeak-3.11.3.2135-src/droid$ ls -la squeakvm -rwxr-xr-x 1 gokr gokr 1792112 2009-10-26 18:12 squeakvm ...now, moving it to the Android emulator and trying to run it cause a seg fault :) Then I installed a gdb on the emulator and managed to do "file squeakvm" and followed by run - then boom. I don't know gdb enough to figure out what to do... But hey, some kind of progress! :) I should probably add a "-g" to the build and see if I can get more info. All hints on gdb tricks appreciated. regards, Göran

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[commit] r2146 - gnu-interp.c depends on generated interp.c
by commits＠squeakvm.org 26 Oct '09

26 Oct '09

Author: piumarta Date: 2009-10-26 12:32:39 -0700 (Mon, 26 Oct 2009) New Revision: 2146 Modified: trunk/platforms/unix/ChangeLog trunk/platforms/unix/vm/build.cmake Log: gnu-interp.c depends on generated interp.c Modified: trunk/platforms/unix/ChangeLog =================================================================== --- trunk/platforms/unix/ChangeLog 2009-10-21 02:44:33 UTC (rev 2145) +++ trunk/platforms/unix/ChangeLog 2009-10-26 19:32:39 UTC (rev 2146) @@ -1,3 +1,7 @@ +2009-10-26 Ian Piumarta <com -dot- gmail -at- piumarta (backwards)> + + * vm/build.cmake: gnu-interp.c depends on generated interp.c. + 2009-10-20 Ian Piumarta <com -dot- gmail -at- piumarta (backwards)> * vm/sqUnixMemory.c (uxGrowMemoryBy): Reject request to increase Modified: trunk/platforms/unix/vm/build.cmake =================================================================== --- trunk/platforms/unix/vm/build.cmake 2009-10-21 02:44:33 UTC (rev 2145) +++ trunk/platforms/unix/vm/build.cmake 2009-10-26 19:32:39 UTC (rev 2146) @@ -21,11 +21,13 @@ ) ADD_CUSTOM_COMMAND ( + DEPENDS ${src}/vm/interp.c OUTPUT ${bld}/interp.c COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy ${src}/vm/interp.c ${bld}/interp.c} ) ADD_CUSTOM_COMMAND ( + DEPENDS ${src}/vm/interp.c OUTPUT ${bld}/gnu-interp.c COMMAND ${config}/gnuify ${config}/gnuify.awk ${src}/vm/interp.c ${bld}/gnu-interp.c )

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iPhone security (Re: Squeak + Android and Dalvik!?)
by Ronald Spengler 23 Oct '09

23 Oct '09

Yeah Safari has it's own "fast javascript engine." It's treated me well, though I could see Google's money making v8 the king of the Hill for both browsers in the long run. I grok the technical implications of what you gentlemen are saying. They're real. I wanted to diverge a bit though. I don't think the technical issues come primarily from a real security perspective: I believe that the biggest barriers to many of the things we want to do (in particular, compile code on the device) stem from Apple's *desire for control of the distribution channel*. John, I've been wondering: Is this the main reason I cannot purchase your Squeak VM on the App Store? I dig my wiki server, but I'd really really like to be able to Squeak on my phone without voiding the warranty. On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 3:11 PM, Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > > On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 2:08 PM, John M McIntosh <johnmci(a)smalltalkconsulting.com> wrote: >> >> >> On 2009-10-22, at 1:41 PM, Eliot Miranda wrote: >> >>> Its OK if you're Apple, right? JavaScript is V8 (a JIT) on the iPhone isn't it? > > At least on Safari it is "Nitro". So I guess Mobile Safari doesn't contain V8 either. > >>> >>> And if Java is on the iPhone its probably a JIT too. >> >> Er yes, well it's your operating system, your hardware, your legal documents. One can do what one wants, as long as one can >> keep the other guy out of your playpen. So who does hand executable pages to V8? Good question... >> >> Java is NOT on the iPhone. Neither is Flash. *cough* well interpreted flash, Adobe has some static compiled >> version they make or something now. Grind Flash thru some process, makes iphone app. >> >> -- >> =========================================================================== >> John M. McIntosh <johnmci(a)smalltalkconsulting.com> Twitter: squeaker68882 >> Corporate Smalltalk Consulting Ltd. http://www.smalltalkconsulting.com >> =========================================================================== >> >> >> >> > > > -- Ron

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Vm-dev October 2009