Re: fewer Objective C messages within Swarm

[pauljohn]

I'm going to build another gcc rpm that uses your objc-act.c patch
below. I'll announce here when they are ready, but first:

Question: Do you also have a patch for gcc 3.0 which makes the
compile/runtime warnings about objc_mesg_whatever go away?

Question 2: How do you cut down the number of messages as you describe
below?

Question 3: Does this affect performace of models written in objective
C?


"Marcus G. Daniels" wrote:
> 
> In today's snapshot there's a build configuration which significantly
> reduces the number of Objective C messages within Swarm itself.
> 
>   ftp://ftp.swarm.org/pub/swarm/src/testing/swarm-2001-07-06.tar.gz
> 
> The speedup is sensitive to the kind of model, but for the Java model
> I'm working on the speed up is about 20 %.  Basically, the more
> complex of a model it is (in terms of Swarm scheduling), the faster it
> will be.  This was a fairly large patch to Swarm, and although it
> doesn't cover all potential Objective messages within Swarm, it chops
> down the tall trees...  More work is possible -- see
> src/{defobj/collections/activity}/macros.h if you are curious.
> 
> Note: Objective C messaging is very fast.  To give you an idea, my 20 %
> speedup (over a mere five seconds) involved eliminating 34,000,000
> message dispatches!
> 
> A hassle is that it requires this compiler patch.
> (made against GCC 3.0)
> 
> *** /home/mgd/objc-act.c        Fri Jul  6 17:30:03 2001
> --- objc-act.c  Thu Jun 14 19:08:40 2001
> ***************
> *** 7119,7129 ****
>     char *buf;
> 
>     /* Synth the storage class & assemble the return type.  */
> - #if 0
>     sc_spec = tree_cons (NULL_TREE, ridpointers[(int) RID_STATIC], NULL_TREE);
> - #else
> -   sc_spec = tree_cons (NULL_TREE, ridpointers[(int) RID_EXTERN], NULL_TREE);
> - #endif
>     ret_spec = TREE_PURPOSE (TREE_TYPE (method));
>     decl_specs = chainon (sc_spec, ret_spec);
> 
> --- 7119,7125 ----
> 
> To build Swarm using such a modified GCC, run `make' like so:
> 
>   $ make EXTRACPPFLAGS=-DMETHOD_FUNCTIONS
> 
> In addition, using the Swarm patch below, you can improve the performance of
> Java models which make many calls on Swarm, e.g. calling the random
> number generator, Tk graphics routines, etc.  This patch requires a
> GCC as modified above.
> 
> Index: interface.el
> ===================================================================
> RCS file: /cvs/hive/Swarm/swarm/etc/interface.el,v
> retrieving revision 1.30
> diff -c -r1.30 interface.el
> *** interface.el        2001/04/19 02:59:07     1.30
> --- interface.el        2001/07/06 23:08:57
> ***************
> *** 625,631 ****
> 
>   (defun create-dispatch-hash-table (protocol phase)
>     (let ((ht (make-hash-table)))
> !     ;(load-dispatch-hash-table protocol phase ht)
>       ht))
> 
>   (defun c-objc-type (type)
> --- 625,631 ----
> 
>   (defun create-dispatch-hash-table (protocol phase)
>     (let ((ht (make-hash-table)))
> !     (load-dispatch-hash-table protocol phase ht)
>       ht))
> 
>   (defun c-objc-type (type)
> 
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-- 
Paul E. Johnson                       email: address@hidden
Dept. of Political Science            http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn
University of Kansas                  Office: (785) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66045                FAX: (785) 864-5700

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