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Fun with CleanBlocks or: Speeding up Dictionary>>#at:
by Marcus Denker May 19, 2023

May 19, 2023

Dictionary lookup is used a lot. Let's look at Dictionary>>#at: at: key "Answer the value associated with the key." ^ self at: key ifAbsent: [self errorKeyNotFound: key] The method looks simple and at a first glance, there are no obvious problems. But if we look at it again, we see that for every execution of #at:, the block [self errorKeyNotFound: key] has to be created. The method stores a CompiledBlock in the literals, and a bytecode "create block" creates the block: ``` (Dictionary>>#at:) symbolic "'41 <4C> self 42 <40> pushTemp: 0 43 <40> pushTemp: 0 44 <F9 00 01> fullClosure:a CompiledBlock: [self errorKeyNotFound: key] NumCopied: 1 47 <A1> send: at:ifAbsent: 48 <5C> returnTop'" ``` This happens at *every* execution of #at:, even though the block that we spend time to create will never be executed at runtime (outside of real errors). If you look at the rest of the code path of #at: in a Dictionary, it is carefully written to avoid block creation by using optimized contructs (ifTrue: and friends). Could clean blocks help? Clean blocks are blocks that only use data that the compiler knows at compile time, thus we can create a CleanBlockClosure (which has the CompiledBlock) and store *that* as a Literal. This then would mean that we could just use as fast pushLiteral: to push the block, no creation at runtime needed. Clean blocks are not yet enabled by default, but we can use a compiler option pragma to enable them just for this method: ``` <compilerOptions: #(+ optionCleanBlockClosure)> ``` The problem is that the block references both "self" and the key to be able to show a nice error message. Referencing either one make the block not clean. Could we change the block to be clean? I guess we could not refer self and inline the method #errorKeyNotFound: (knowing the instance is not that important for logging the error in production, for example). But we do want to know the key that is not found, it really simplifies debugging especially if you have to look at log files. If we closely look at the block: we know a bit more about it and how it is used. We know that if it gets evaluated, that evaluation will *always* happen with the homeContext of the block on the stack, as it is will always be #at:ifAbsent: that evaluates that block. And in that case, there is a trick that we can do: we can use reflection to read the needed values via the stack. You might not be aware, but the debugger needs some quite interesting features from the reflective layer of the system to provide the user experience that you take for granted (and that feels trivial). Imagine a block like that: ``` tt | temp1 temp2 | temp1 := 1. temp2 := 2. self class methods do: [ :each | self halt. each with: temp1 ]. ^ temp2 ``` The block does not reference temp2, so it actually is created as a block that does not know temp2 at all. temp2 is not accessibe from the block or it's context. Yet, when debugging, you want to just be able to write temp2 in the block and eval it (without saving the method), as *if* you would access the temp in this block and recompile, the compiler would compile a different block that would know temp2. So the reflective API of Context (and the infrastructure of reading Variables reflectively), is build in a way that #readVariableNamed: will use the stack to find the value of temps that are not available in the block context, but could be available if they would be referenced statically. And if you think about it, we have just a case like that here, in reverse: if we would use #readVariableNamed: on the context to read the argument, the compiler would not see a read of "key", thus compile a block that does not have that temp available. And if we then read "self" via thisContext, too, the compiler sees a block that it can compile as a clean block: at: key "Answer the value associated with the key." <compilerOptions: #(+ optionCleanBlockClosure)> ^ self at: key ifAbsent: [ "this block is never executed, yet we pay runtime cost to create it if it is a full block. We use instead the reflective API to read the argument and receiver via the stack, making the block clean. We enable cleanBlocks for this method by setting optionCleanBlockClosure as it is not yet enabled by default" KeyNotFound signalFor: (thisContext readVariableNamed: #key) in: thisContext sender receiver "This is equivalent to: self errorKeyNotFound: key" ] Let's look at the printed symbolic bytecode: ``` Dictionary>>#at:) symbolic "'41 <4C> self 42 <40> pushTemp: 0 43 <20> pushConstant: [ "this block is never executed, yet we pay runtime cost to create it if it is a full block. We use instead the reflective API to read the argument and receiver via the stack, making the block clean. We enable cleanBlocks for this method by setting optionCleanBlockClosure as it is not yet enabled by default" KeyNotFound signalFor: (thisContext readVariableNamed: #key) in: thisContext sender receiver "This is equivalent to: self errorKeyNotFound: key" ] 44 <A1> send: at:ifAbsent: 45 <5C> returnTop'" ``` you see that it now uses pushConstant: to push the pre-compiled CleanBlockClosure, which is *much* faster. A very naive benchmark using a fairly large Dictionary (Smalltalk globals): ``` [Smalltalk globals at: #Object] bench 8591996.801/7040335.266 "1.220395972119888" ``` Shows a speedup of ~20%, which is qute a lot! Of course, this is a hack. For one, it just solves this for this one case. And we do not want to add code like that everywhere. And real world impact of speed will be quite limited due to that (it just speeds up Dictionary>#at:) The alternative would be to inline #at:ifAbsent: This inlining, due to the existing subclasses, leads to quite some needed refactorings, and has the same problem of being a solution for this problem in this one place. The real solution in the long term is a JIT that removes blocks like that by inlining automatically for the code it executes, while not changing the image level code at all. This would then solve this for all similar cases everywhere all at once. But the nice aspect of the hack is: it is local (touches just this one method), gives us some speedup now and will be trivially removable when we deploy a better solution in the future. But the code is quite ugly and indeed relies on reflection... which maybe for Dictionary>>#at: is not that nice (e.g. if you want to create a minimal image without reflection) But it is save to add this to your own image, it works in Pharo11 and Pharo12 and I guess even in Pharo10 (not tested there). Marcus

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This week (20/2023) on the Pharo Issue Tracker.
by Marcus Denker May 19, 2023

May 19, 2023

This week, we continued the work on Pharo12. #Fixes - Drop use of Paragraph from #drawOn: in ToggleWithSymbolMenuItemShortcut to fix menu item alignment #13764 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13764 - 13657-With-CleanBlocks-enabled-tests-fail-when-trying-to-Fuel-out-stack #13763 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13763 - Adjust icon and key text spacing in ToggleMenuItemMorph #13722 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13722 # Features - add object to represent the Native Window #13566 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13566 - Add menu items âIndentâ and âOutdentâ to the menu built through #menuOn: in RubSmalltalkCodeMode #13714 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13714 # Compiler - Remove Object bindingOf: and hasBindingOf: #13736 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13736 https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1392 - Compiler: remove #lookupVar:declare: #13737 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13737 https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1390 - 13723-Binding-for-variable-in-Playground-is-nil-after-assigning-a-number-to-it #13739 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13739 # Protocols - Method announcements should use real protocols #13730 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13730 - Clean the way to get the selectors in a protocol #13759 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13759 - Inline protocol removal from ClassOrganization #13753 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13753 - Diver cleanings around protocols #13749 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13749 - Inline ClassOrganization>>#removeElement: in ClassDescription #13748 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13748 - Implement ClassDescription>>#protocolNameOfSelector: #13728 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13728 - Move #protocolOfSelector: to ClassDescription #13711 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13711 - Improve removal of protocols and add tests #13692 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13692 # Refactoring Engine - Refactoring RBRefactoringWarning and RBRefactoringError #13367 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13367 # Cleanup - Update 01-loadMetacello.st: MetacelloPharoCommonPlatform #13762 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13762 - update-dependencies #13754 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13754 - 10069-Review-NullTextStyler #13752 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13752 - 12444-cleanup-todo-from-testClassSideInitializeMethodNeedsToBeInClassInitializationProtocol #13750 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13750 - Cleanup-MetacelloPharoPlatform #13738 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13738 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13747 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13716 - Move-isObservableSlot #13745 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13745 https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec/pull/1393 - Add class comments to mocks #13743 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13743 - Class-Deprecate-classComment #13744 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13744 - Cleanup TheManifestBuilder #13742 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13742 - finally remove AbstractTool #13715 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13715 https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools/pull/523 - Remove dead code in session manager #13729 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13729 - Fix deprecated call #13710 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13710 - extract return from ifNilifNotNil in ChangeSorterModel #516 https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools/pull/516 - Do not listen to method recategorization in MessageBrowser #524 https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools/pull/524

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This week (19/2023) on the Pharo Issue Tracker
by Marcus Denker May 15, 2023

May 15, 2023

We released Pharo11 this week! see https://www.pharo.org/news/pharo11-released.html # Pharo 11 - Fix welcomebrowser version #13691 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13691 - Backport fixe #13663: Enabling the setting âShow lines numbers for all browsers #13665 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13665 - fix iceberg version for Pharo 11 #13655 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13655 - fix a bug with cmd+g usage #517 https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools/pull/517 - change spotter selection paste default #519 https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools/pull/519 # Pharo 12 ## Fixes - Improve some error logging #13689 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13689 - Enabling the setting âShow lines numbers for all browsersâ only shows line numbers for the first method selected in a class #13663 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/issues/13663 ## Variables - Allow-Slots-Shadow-PseudoVariables #13704 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13704 - Simplify ReservedVariable: #styleNameIn and remove #nameIsReserved: #13701 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13701 - ReservedVariable: No need for Singleton #13688 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13688 - Added thisProcess pseudovariable using existing bytecode. #13661 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13661 ## SystemOrganizer / RPackage - Remove dead code in RPackageOrganizer default instance #13660 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13660 - Reduces the references to RPackageOrganizer class>>default #13666 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13666 - Move system organizer to RPackage and remove references #13677 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13677 - Remove SystemOrganizer #13690 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13690 - Use Smalltalk organization in DependencyAnalyzer #13671 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13671 ## Protocols / Categories - Do not classify silently methods #13650 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13650 - Start protocol announcements testing + add feature to Announcer #13649 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13649 - Deprecate ProtocolRenamed #13659 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13659 - Small cleanup on protocol cleaning #13642 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13642 - Rename Protocol class>>#name: into #named: #13670 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13670 - Use real protocol in recategorization mecanism #13669 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13669 - Introduce ClassDescription>>#protocolNames and start using it #13658 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13658 - Add some tests on protocol announcements #13706 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13706 - Removal of nonexisting protocol should not announce anything #13702 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13702 ## Code Completion - Completion autoclose menu #13647 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13647 - Completion: improve completion on super #13679 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13679 - Completion: replacement put caret at the right place #13683 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13683 - Completion mini fixes #13696 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13696 - Basic type analysis for better completion #13687 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13687 - More type analysis #13697 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13697 - CompletionEngine do not automatically open empty completion menus #13705 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13705 - NECPreferences remove leftover of captureNavigationKeys #13703 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13703 - Completion: better update #13700 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13700 - Completion browse with Ctrl-B #13699 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13699 ## Cleanups - Clean some code using better condition branches #13668 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13668 - Remove some duplication in image cleaner #13676 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13676 - Message: rename ivar "args" to "arguments #13654 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13654 - Cleanup: Metacello-Platform #13682 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13682 - remove MetacelloPharo30Platform from 01-loadMetacello.st #13684 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13684 - Clean monticello class definition management #13680 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13680

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[ANN] Pharo 11 Released !
by Esteban Lorenzano May 12, 2023

May 12, 2023

Dear Pharo users and dynamic language lovers: We have released Pharo (https://pharo.org/) version 11! What is Pharo? Pharo is a pure object-oriented programming language and a powerful environment focused on simplicity and immediate feedback. Simple & powerful language: No constructors, no types declaration, no interfaces, no primitive types. Yet a powerful and elegant language with a full syntax fitting in one postcard! Pharo is objects and messages all the way down. Live, immersive environment: Immediate feedback at any moment of your development: Developing, testing, debugging. Even in production environments, you will never be stuck in compiling and deploying steps again! Amazing debugging experience: Pharo environment includes a debugger unlike anything you've seen before. It allows you to step through code, restart the execution of methods, create methods on the fly, and much more! Pharo is yours: Pharo is made by an incredible community, with more than 100 contributors for the last revision of the platform and hundreds of people constantly contributing with frameworks and libraries. Fully open-source: Pharo full stack is released under MIT (https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT) License and available on GitHub (https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo) ... more on the Pharo Features page (http://www.pharo.org/features) In this iteration of Pharo, we continue working on our objectives of improvement, clean-up and modularization. Also, we included a number of usability and speed improvements. A complete list of changes and improvements is available in our Changelog (https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-changelogs/blob/master/Pharo110Chang…) Some highlights of this amazing version: Highlights Tools Iceberg (the git client/VCS control tool) has received a lot of tweaks and fixes to work better with GitHub and other Git services. Our debugger now incorporates lots of tweaks and notably the capability of adding bindings in the context interaction model. The is a new implementation of rewrite tools and improved refactoring support. There is a new tool: The Document Browser, which presents Microdown (markdown compatible) documents placed on the web or locally. New Tools presented in Calypso (the System Browser) and additional extended Inspectors. All versions of NewTools, Spec, Roassal and Microdown have been updated with their respective bug fixes and improvements. System Extended Full Blocks and Constant Clock closures support. Additional Inlining and optimizations Bug Fixes and Clean up. Ephemeron Finalization support. Virtual machine Ephemerons Production Ready. Initial support for Single-Instruction Multiple-Data (SIMD). Third-Party Dependency Update (Newer versions, Graphic Libraries using Hardware Acceleration). Clean Ups: Remove lots of old code, notably old experiments, and dead code. Development Effort This new version is the result of 1412 Pull Requests integrated just in the Pharo repository. We have closed 972 issues and received contributions from more than 70 different contributors. We have also a lot of work in the separate projects that are included in each Pharo release: http://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools (https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools) http://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools-DocumentBrowser (https://github.com/pharo-spec/NewTools-DocumentBrowser) http://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec (https://github.com/pharo-spec/Spec) http://github.com/pharo-vcs/Iceberg (https://github.com/pharo-vcs/Iceberg) http://github.com/ObjectProfile/Roassal3 (https://github.com/ObjectProfile/Roassal3) http://github.com/pillar-markup/Microdown (https://github.com/pillar-markup/Microdown) http://github.com/pillar-markup/BeautifulComments (https://github.com/pillar-markup/BeautifulComments) http://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm (https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm) Contributors We always say Pharo is yours. It is yours because we made it for you, but most importantly because it is made by the invaluable contributions of our great community (yourself). A large community of people from all around the world contributed to Pharo 11.0 by making pull requests, reporting bugs, participating in discussion threads, providing feedback, and a lot of helpful tasks in all our community channels. Thank you all for your contributions. The Pharo Team Discover Pharo: https://pharo.org/features Try Pharo: http://pharo.org/download Learn Pharo: http://pharo.org/documentation

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Pharo contribution Jenkins end of service
by Christophe Demarey May 12, 2023

May 12, 2023

Hi all, Some years ago, we provided a Jenkins instance to check the health / quality of projects that are not in Pharo core but important for the community: https://ci.inria.fr/pharo-contribution/ <https://ci.inria.fr/pharo-contribution/> Since, we moved to GitHub and GitHub actions are mainly used to achieve the same goal. Therefore there is no more reason to keep this service. Thatâs why we decided to stop the Pharo contribution Jenkins on 12th June 2023. If you need to save some data (job artefacts, job setup), let us know. The server is now up but it has not been updated since a while and can stop working from time to time. On 12th June 2023, we will shutdown the server and all data will be removed. The Pharo team.

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Pharo VM Release - v10.0.5
by tesonep＠gmail.com May 6, 2023

May 6, 2023

Hello, we have released a new version of the Pharo VM for Pharo 11. This VM is accessible right now from Zero-Conf, updating it in the Pharo Launcher or using the usual downloads (as described in pharo.org/download) Also, OBS packages are ready to be updated using your distribution package manager. This is the new VM that will be stable for Pharo 11 release and Pharo 12 alpha, it is also compatible with Pharo 10 images but it is not the default for Pharo 10. Changelog * Testing scavenger tenuring by @PalumboN in https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/588 * Deleting Pharo image from the VM repo by @jordanmontt in https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/591 * Cleaning Up Third Party Libraries by @tesonep in https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/pull/581 **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo-vm/compare/v10.0.4...v10.0.5 Thanks a lot, and any doubt please let us know. Cheers, Pablo on behalf of the whole Pharo team. -- Pablo Tesone. tesonep(a)gmail.com

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This week (18/2023) on the Pharo Issue Tracker
by Marcus Denker May 5, 2023

May 5, 2023

With some last fixes, Pharo11 now is ready for release, Pharo12 improvements continue, with a focus on Protocols/ClassOrganizer, Compiler, Code Completion and CompiledMethodTrailer/sourcePointer simplifications. For the later, these posts to the pharo-dev list have more details: [Pharo12] Simplify CompiledMethod trailer: just support fixed sourcePointers https://lists.pharo.org/empathy/thread/XBAX4TN2F2CBD6VCU4PCAB7KXKTOS5GU [Pharo12] Simpler sourcePointer encoding https://lists.pharo.org/empathy/thread/AZQ3JHTV22XNO5STSII62UJEVE3ANDFN [Pharo12] commentSourcePointer and Metaclass https://lists.pharo.org/empathy/thread/QBVM3DV4NDXETJUH7QVOZCZYGENFGLJB # Pharo11 - 13526-Attempt-to-release-a-shared-cairo-font-face #13574 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13574 - Fix wrong double click #13577 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13577 - Fix/filter #13589 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13589 - Debugger fixes #13592 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13592 - Add new welcomebrowser #13623 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13623 - Make protocol classification a setting #13615 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13615 # Pharo112 ## Clean Blocks - Clean blocks for announcement #13590 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13590 ## SystemOrganizer - Make Smalltalk environnement return a RPackageOrganizer #13403 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13403 - Remove references to SystemOrganization #13632 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13632 - Deprecate SystemOrganization #13497 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13497 ## Protocols / ClassOrganization - Cleanup protocol announcements in ClassOrganization #13646 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13646 - Test ClassOrganization>>#hasProtocol: #13644 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13644 - ClassOrganization classification cleanings #13373 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13373 - Ensure #addSelector:withMethod: classifies methods #13635 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13635 - Reduce cyclomatic complexity of #classify:under: #13630 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13630 - Do not reclassify already classified method #13621 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13621 - Simplify classify:under: #13604 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13604 - Remove ClassOrganization>>#protocolNameOfElement:ifAbsent: #13605 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13605 - Improve #renameProtocolNamed:toBe: #13466 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13466 - Do not rely on #protocolNameOfElement: in Traits #13582 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13582 - Remove usage of #protocolNameOfElement:ifAbsent: in traits #13593 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13593 - Remove hack from ClassOrganization>>protocolNameOfElement: #13653 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13653 ## Improvements - rubric: doit actions on empty selection selects the current expression #13096 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13096 - Simplify code export #13624 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13624 ## Code Completion - Completion complete empty tokens #13638 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13638 - Autocompletion must replace from start of the word if case-insensitivâ¦ #13548 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13548 - Code Completion: multiple fixes on replacements annoying bugs #13625 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13625 - Completion: prepare for empty token #13636 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13636 - Complete super message send #13637 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13637 ## CompiledMethod trailer cleanup / sourcePointer - HEInstaller should take the trailerSize into account #13627 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13627 - this PR introduces CompiledMethod>>#clearSourcePointer and #sourcePointer: #13578 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13578 - Deprecated CompiledMethodTrailer #13579 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13579 - skip some SourceFileArrayTest #13585 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13585 - Fix-SourceFileArrayTest for new encoding #13596 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13596 - #sourceCodeAt: should return nil in failure case #13586 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13586 - Simpler sourcePointer encoding #13583 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13583 - Set #trailerSize to 5 #13580 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13580 - CommentSourcePointer-move-methods-down #13640 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13640 - move commentSourcePointer from ClassDescription to Class #13643 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13643 - fix BehaviorTest>>#testInstSize #13648 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13648 - Faster #setSourcePointer: #13645 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13645 ## Compiler - Add compiler option to not optimise special sends #13569 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13569 - Compiler: do generation #13541 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13541 - Cleanup-optionInlineRepeat-is-default #13614 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13614 - MethodMapTest-use-Compiler #13620 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13620 - Compiler: get requestor #13606 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13606 - AST: add a scanner state #13557 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13557 ## Cleanups / Tests - Remove some dead code in ChangeSet #13622 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13622 - Add test on CompiledCode>>#equivalentTo: #13595 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13595 - extract return from ifTrue:ifFalse: expression #13603 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13603 - extract return from ifTrue:ifFalse: expression #13601 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13601 - use nested and: expression instead of ifTrueifFalse #13611 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13611 - extract return from ifTrue:ifFalse: expression #13609 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13609

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[Pharo12] commentSourcePointer and Metaclass
by Marcus Denker May 4, 2023

May 4, 2023

Hi, up to Pharo11, the commentSourcePointer that is used to read and write the class comments was in ClassOrganization. In Pharo 12, we moved the commentSourcePointer to Class, Metaclass therefore has no empty commentSourcePointer anymore via itâs organizer. PR is mergedâ¦ these are of course more steps then you would think Started in Pharo11: - ix-tests-commentSourcePointer #11441 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/11441 - Add commentSourcePointer to ClassDescription #11326 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/11326 Pharo 12: - Set-CommentSourcepointer-ClassDescription #13171 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13171 - remove commentSourcePointer from ClassOrganization #13176 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13176 - CommentSourcePointer-move-methods-down #13640 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13640 - move commentSourcePointer from ClassDescription to Class #13643 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13643 - fix BehaviorTest>>#testInstSize #13648 https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13648 and DONE. Moving ivars around in these classes is of course not easy, it can only be done with creating a PR by editing the code directly and then can be bootstapped, but you could not do that from a running image. (this explains why the commentSourcePointer was in ClassOrganization to start with, when it was introduced, this was the only place to put without major hassle) - the code is now much simpler to understand (Metaclass forwards all methods related to comments to #instanceSide) - it saves (a little bit) of memory (Smalltalk globals allClasses size * 8) bytes - is just one step to move merge ClassOrganization with ClassDescription, which will be a bit more relevant in terms of memory Marcus

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[Pharo12] Simplify CompiledMethod trailer: just support fixed sourcePointers
by Marcus Denker May 3, 2023

May 3, 2023

Hi, We did (im Pharo12) a simplification of how method trailers are handled. Below is the class comment of the now Deprecated and empty class CompiledMethodTrailer. The issue https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/issues/13512 has a list of all the intermediate steps done. ========== CompiledMethodTrailer was removed in Pharo12 It was responsible for encoding and decoding various kinds of compiled method trailer data, but that had many downsides: â¢ variable length trailers forced often called methods like CompiledMethod>>#endPC to instantiate an instance â¢ setting a sourcePointer that required a different length trailer (e.g embedding sources) needed to create a new compiled method and do a become â¢ to avoid that, the compiler supported to use an existing trailer and delegated instance creation of CompiledMethod to it. â¢ using 1 byte for the trailer kind lead to the need use Variable length encoding already for our ~40MB source file for some methods. All in all, the CompiledMethodTrailer added a lot of complexity for nothing. What do we do now? â¢ use use a fixed-length trailer (see #trailerSize) â¢ writing and reading that is not that complex (see #setSourcePointer, #sourcePointer:) Q: I used to hand a trailer to the compiler, what should I do now? The compiler now creates always CompiledMethods with a fixed, but empty trailer. Just use #sourcePointer to set it after. Q: I used to clear the trailer using #copyWithTrailerBytes:, what should I do now? There is now #cearSourcePointer. Just use #copy before if you want a copy. Q: I want to have a non-installed method, but with source code. The compiler now sets a #source property (and setting a source pointer via #sourcePointer: removes it). If you use the compiler, you need to do nothing special anymore! All methods come with source via the property by default.

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[Pharo12] Simpler sourcePointer encoding
by Marcus Denker May 2, 2023

May 2, 2023

Hi, After simplifying the CompiledMethodTrailer, let's look at what is stored there. It is an integer that encodes 1) which file? .sources or .changes ? and 2) the position in the file. So for two files we need one bit. So we could just shift the position by one and then use the last bit, if it is 1, we are .changes. But if you look at the code... it looks strange. I think this is for compatibility, without a bootstrap, changes like these are hard to do. So this is the old code: fileIndexFromSourcePointer: anInteger "Return the index of the source file which contains the source chunk addressed by anInteger" ^ (anInteger bitAnd: 16r1000000) ~= 0 ifTrue: [ 1 "sources file" ] ifFalse: [ anInteger >= 16r1000000 ifTrue: [ 2 "changes file" ] ifFalse: [ 0 "compatibility with StandardSourceFileArray" ] ] filePositionFromSourcePointer: anInteger "Return the position of the source chunk addressed by anInteger" | hi lo | hi := anInteger // 33554432. lo := anInteger \\ 16777216. ^ ((anInteger bitAnd: 16777216) ~= 0 or: [ anInteger < 16777216 "compatibility with StandardSourceFileArray" ]) ifTrue: [ hi * 16777216 + lo "sources file" ] ifFalse: [ (hi - 1) * 16777216 + lo "changes file" ] sourcePointerFromFileIndex: index andPosition: position "Return a sourcePointer encoding the given file index and position" | hi lo | (index = 1 or: [index = 2]) ifFalse: [self error: 'invalid source file index']. position < 0 ifTrue: [self error: 'invalid source code pointer']. hi := position // 16r1000000 *2 + index. lo := position \\ 16r1000000. ^ hi * 16r1000000 + lo While this is the "just shift by one and use the last bit" version: fileIndexFromSourcePointer: anInteger "Return the index of the source file which contains the source chunk addressed by anInteger" "1 is sources file, 2 is changes file" ^ (anInteger bitAnd: 1) + 1 filePositionFromSourcePointer: anInteger "Return the position of the source chunk addressed by anInteger, just shift by one" ^ anInteger >> 1 sourcePointerFromFileIndex: index andPosition: position "Return a sourcePointer encoding the given file index and position" (index = 1 or: [index = 2]) ifFalse: [self error: 'invalid source file index']. position < 0 ifTrue: [self error: 'invalid source code pointer']. "we shift the position by one and set the last bit for .changes" ^ (position << 1) bitOr: index - 1 The PR https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/13583 was merged in Pharo12 last week. Marcus

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