Version 18 (modified by cotto, 13 years ago) |
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Intro
The PMC Union is being deprecated, which means that any instances of PMC_int_val, etc need to disappear. This is a big job with several gotchas.
What Needs to Happen
The following PMCs should be straightforward to convert to ATTRs. If a PMC has a certain macro listed, only convert uses of that macro to ATTRs for the PMC. Other UnionVal macros have depenency issues which are not yet resolvable.
PMC | status |
BigInt | fixed in r35664 |
Continuation (PMC_pmc_val only) | removed in r35712 |
Coroutine (PMC_pmc_val only) | |
Float | fixed in r35666 |
LexPad (PMC_pmc_val only) | fixed in r35669 |
LuaBoolean | |
LuaThread | |
MatchRange (PMC_int_val2 only) | |
NameSpace (PMC_pmc_val only) | |
SArray | will be removed |
TQueue | fixed in r35653 |
Allison explained in depth how to convert code. Good example code can be found in src/pmc/exporter.pmc .
Inheritance
Because the PMC union struct is part of a PMC's internals, its use is affected by PMC inheritance. The following image shows the dependencies between all *core* PMCs. This does not include PMCs from HLLs. Because of these dependencies, all PMCs in a given dependency tree will have to be updated simultaneously. This only means that all instances of e.g. PMC_struct_val will have to be updated, not all instances of all PMC_x_val.
Notes
*Array PMCs need to have their mark VTABLE methods updated to actually mark the elements inside them. src/gc/mark_sweep.c:Parrot_gc_trace_pmc_data() attempts to do this by mucking around with PMC_data_typed(). Once the mark VTABLE methods are updated to do The Right Thing, Parrot_gc_trace_pmc_data() can be deprecated along with the PObj_data_is_PMC_array_FLAG. All arrays should instead be marked with PObj_custom_mark_FLAG to call the proper mark VTABLE methods.
* src/gc/mark_sweep.c also uses PMC_struct_val in two places. This needs to be investigated and the data stored elsewhere. See TT #178.
Gotchas
* You may need to add certain VTABLE functions to the PMCs which you are updating. This applies not just to init and destroy, but also clone, morph and other functions that need to deal with the PMC's internal data. This is especially true if your PMC *doesn't have* an explicit clone VTABLE function. The absence of clone VTABLE function means that it's using the default clone, which works by copying the UnionVal. Such functions will *not* work properly for any PMCs which don't use the UnionVal.
* Make sure that PMC_data is only used for the PMC-specific attributes struct.
Attachments
- pmc_deps.png (184.7 KB) - added by jimmy 13 years ago.
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pobj_h_unionval_tracking.diff
(2.3 KB) - added by cotto
13 years ago.
patch to parrot used to generate attached files
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pmc_unionval_file.log
(76.4 KB) - added by cotto
13 years ago.
PMC_x_val uses, sorted by source file
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pmc_unionval_pmc.log
(76.4 KB) - added by cotto
13 years ago.
PMC_x_val uses, sorted by PMC
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pmc_unionval_pmc.2.log
(68.4 KB) - added by cotto
13 years ago.
list of PMC_x_val instances, sorted by PMC and grouped by interdepenence