2014-10-27 16:22 GMT+01:00 Clément Bera <bera.clement@gmail.com>:
Hey guys,
I was discussing about methods like that with Marcus:
MyClass>>foo #(false) first ifFalse: [ 'first call since compilation' logCr. #(false) at: 1 put: true ] ifTrue: [ 'other calls' logCr ]
What, you can do that?
DoIt: 4 timesRepeat: [MyClass new foo ]
Transcript: 'first call since compilation' 'other calls' 'other calls' 'other calls'
In the sista image/VM, we are most probably going with Eliot to implement a slow path when you edit the literal of a method (deoptimizing the method) so we can consider that the literals are immutable in the generic case (and if it's not true, execution falls back to a slow path).
But I was thinking, does it worth it to implement the slow path ? Couldn't we just put literals as immutable all the time ?
I would do that, yes.
The methods as the one shown before would not work any more. But does someone use it ?
I could imagine cases where, in very tight memory situations or with very very large literals, we could make use of modifying literals. But I'm not sure this is a significant requirement, or that it couldn't be considered if there is a significant (and rich) use case to fund the development of the slow path. Is there a critic rule catching that sort of thing? That we could run on Squeaksource / Smalltalkhub? Thierry
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