Thank you very much Eliot and Juan for this nice discussion. I have just commit this new functionality and it seems to work fine. I ended up using Eliot's #abstractBytecodes since the one from Juan didn't work out of the box in Pharo. On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 10:38 PM, Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda@gmail.com>wrote:

Hi Juan,

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 11:59 AM, Juan Vuletich <juan@jvuletich.org> wrote:

...

Mariano Martinez Peck wrote:

...

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 9:46 PM, Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda@gmail.com<mailto: eliot.miranda@gmail.**com <eliot.miranda@gmail.com>>> wrote:

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 12:40 PM, Mariano Martinez Peck <marianopeck@gmail.com <mailto:marianopeck@gmail.com>**> wrote:

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 8:30 PM, Juan Vuletich <juan@jvuletich.org <mailto:juan@jvuletich.org>> wrote:

Eliot Miranda wrote:

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 10:55 AM, Mariano Martinez Peck <marianopeck@gmail.com <mailto:marianopeck@gmail.com> <mailto:marianopeck@gmail.com

<mailto:marianopeck@gmail.com>**>> wrote:

Thanks both. I am right to assume that if the block refers to temp vars, parameters, or whatever in another scope, then such solution won't work. I mean, if I have this example for example:

| bytes result blah | blah := 42. bytes := FLSerializer serializeToByteArray: (SortedCollection sortBlock: [:a :b | (a + blah) > b ]).

Then the 'blah' is in a different context. So the mentioned solution works for "clean" closures, which are "self contained". In the other cases (such as this example), we should serialize the whole stack. Is this correct?

No. The closure implementation arranges that any and all temporary variables accessed by the closure are directly accessible from the closure without accessing the outer contexts. ...

WRT clean closures, check what I did in Cuis to serialize SortedCollections. See implementors and senders of #isClean.

Nice. Thanks Juan. I was checking your code, and that's exactly why I asked Eliot. In your method you say:

isClean "A clean closure is one that doesn't really need the home context because: - It doesn't send messages to self or super - It doesn't access any instance variable - It doesn't access any outer temp - It doesn't do ^ return" .....

So... my question is, WHAT do I need to serialize if I want to be able to serialize also "non clean".

IMO, dy default, everything reachable from the closure, including the outerContext chain and their senders. But that's only a default. What makes sense in any given context is up to the application, e.g. see Seaside. One size won't fit all. You should handle the common cases (e.g. clean blocks and everything else) and leave it up to the user to figure out what they need to do in complex situations, making sure you provide them with the hooks they'll need, such as the ability to substitute objects when serializing etc, and perhaps some useful examples.

+1 Then we will do the following: we will check whether the closure is clean. If it is, then we serialize just the closure plus its outerContext but only with receiver and method. If it is not clean, then we serialize the whole stack. That's all by default. If then someone needs something different, then to use the hooks :) So the final question is whether what Juan is using in Cuis is up to date. If it is, then I have all I need :) Thank you guys.

I can say that it does indeed work. But I'd be really grateful if Eliot took a good look at that code!

There is a much better way, using InstructionStream>>interpreetNextInstructionFor: which abstracts away from the bytecode encoding and allows one to simply use messages. e.g. look at

BlockClosure methods for private abstractBytecodes "Answer an OrderedCollection of the abstract bytecodes sent in the receiver." | scanner blockCreationMessage end abstractBytecodes | scanner := InstructionStream new. "find the creation message to find the extent of the block." scanner method: self method pc: self method initialPC. [scanner pc < startpc] whileTrue: [[scanner interpretNextInstructionFor: nil] on: MessageNotUnderstood do: [:ex| blockCreationMessage := ex message]]. end := blockCreationMessage arguments last + startpc - 1. "now collect all the bytecode messages in the block." abstractBytecodes := OrderedCollection new. scanner method: self method pc: startpc. [scanner pc < end] whileTrue: [[scanner interpretNextInstructionFor: nil] on: MessageNotUnderstood do: [:ex| abstractBytecodes add: ex message selector]]. ^abstractBytecodes

and (SortedCollection sortBlock: [:a :b| a compare: b caseSensitive: false]) sortBlock abstractBytecodes evaluates to

an OrderedCollection(#pushTemporaryVariable: #pushTemporaryVariable: #pushConstant: #send:super:numArgs:)

So a check for clean blocks would check for a block's abstractBytecodes not including some particular set of banned messages (which I *think* is pushReceiver pushReceiverVariable: popIntoReceiverVariable: storeIntoReceiverVariable: methodReturnConstant: methodReturnReceiver methodReturnTop).

e.g.

isClean ^(self abstractBytecodes intersection: #(pushReceiver pushReceiverVariable: popIntoReceiverVariable: storeIntoReceiverVariable: methodReturnConstant: methodReturnReceiver methodReturnTop)) isEmpty

...

Cheers, Juan Vuletich

...

I mean, for each item on that list, what do I need apart from the closure instance and the receiver and method from the outerContext ? the whole stack of contexts ?

Thanks a lot in advance!

-- Mariano http://marianopeck.wordpress.**com<http://marianopeck.wordpress.com>

-- best, Eliot

-- Mariano http://marianopeck.wordpress.**com <http://marianopeck.wordpress.com>

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-- best, Eliot

-- Mariano http://marianopeck.wordpress.com