Hi Nicolas,

On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 3:21 PM, Nicolas Cellier <nicolas.cellier.aka.nice@gmail.com> wrote:

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2014-04-23 0:05 GMT+02:00 Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda@gmail.com>:

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Hi All,

�� I should write a blog post on this, but I can't wait...

In recent days I've written a script to build a Cog VMMaker image from Squeak 4.5. ��See��http://www.squeakvm.org/svn/squeak/branches/Cog/image. ��This has allowed me to run the current Cog VM against Spur side-to-side.

To build a Cog VMMaker image on my 2.2GHz Intel Core i7 MacBook Pro using the current Cog VM takes about 2 and a half minutes:

McStalker.image$ time oscfvm CogVMMaker.image BuildSqueak45Image.st��

real �� 2m30.671s
user �� 2m15.683s
sys �� 0m5.283s

To build the equivalent image using Spur takes about 1 and a half minutes:
McStalker.image$ time spurcfvm CogVMMaker-spur.image BuildSqueak45Image.st��

real �� 1m34.943s
user �� 1m23.666s
sys �� 0m6.810s

Comparing:

94.943 - 150.671 / 150.671 * 100 -36.99
83.666 - 135.681 / 135.681 * 100 -38.34

150.671 / 94.943 1.59
135.681 / 83.666 1.62

that's about a -37% speedup, or 1.6x faster.
--
best,
Eliot

So this is loading .mcz from package cache, uncompressing, compiling, installing the packages.

Exactly.

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I presume this qualifies as a macro benchmark...

yes :-)

��

I didn't follow the full flow of changes, how difficult is it right now to bootstrap a spur.image?

Right now the transformation of the images is straight-forward, e.g.:

SpurBootstrap bootstrapImage: 'Squeak-4.5-All-in-One.app/Contents/Resources/Squeak4.5-13680'

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But fixing the Monticello packages is a little more involved. ��One has to collect the relevant packages in a directory (Kernel, Collections & System) and then do e.g.

(SpurBootstrapMonticelloPackagePatcher new

from: 'image/package-cache'

to: 'image/spur-package-cache')

patch

and then load the packages into the Spur image.

When I get my ass in gear this step should be unnecessary since��http://source.squeak.org/spur is ready and waiting. ��So the Spur trunk for Squeak V5.0 will parallel Squeak 4.6 and hopefully supplant it soon enough.

The main hold up right now is the combination of the facts that the current compaction algorithm doesn't work well, and image start-up always adds 50% of image size as free space, so the image balloons on each save. ��I'm finally getting back to working on the compaction algorithm after a very satisfying three weeks working with Cl��ment B��ra on Sista. ��So I hope to have movement on releasing Spur for the 4.6/5.0 development cycle soon.

--
best,

Eliot