[LLVMdev] Newbie questions

[Alkis Evlogimenos]

On 4/25/06, Archie Cobbs <archie at dellroad.org> wrote:
> Alkis Evlogimenos wrote:
> > On 4/25/06, Archie Cobbs <archie at dellroad.org> wrote:
> >> Motivation: Java's "first active use" requirement for class initialization.
> >> When invoking a static method, it's possible that a class may need to
> >> be initialized, However, when invoking an instance method, that's not
> >> possible.
> >>
> >> Perhaps there should be a way in LLVM to specify predicates (or at least
> >> properties of global variables and parameters) that are known to be true
> >> at the start of each function... ?
> >
> > I think this will end up being the same as the null pointer trapping
> > instruction optimization. The implementation will very likely involve
> > some pointer to the description of the class. To make this fast this
> > pointer will be null if the class is not loaded and you trap when you
> > try to use it and perform initialization. So in the end the same
> > optimization pass that was used for successive field accesses can be
> > used for class initialization as well.
>
> If that were the implementation then yes that could work. But using
> a null pointer like this probably wouldn't be the case. In Java you have
> to load a class before you initialize it, so the pointer to the type
> structure will already be non-null.

That is why I said if you want it to be fast :-). My point was that if
you want this to be fast you need to find a way to make it trap when a
class is not initialized. If you employ the method you mention below
for JCVM then you need to perform optimizations to simplify the
conditionals.

> In JCVM for example, there is a bit in type->flags that determines
> whether the class is initialized or not. This bit has to be checked
> before every static method invocation or static field access. You could
> reserve an entire byte instead of a bit, but I don't know if that would
> make it any easier to do this optimization.
>
> ------
>
> I'm not entirely convinced (or understanding) how the "no annotations"
> approach is supposed to work. For example, for optimizing away Java's
> "active use" checks as discussed above. How specifically does this
> optimzation get done? Saying that the implementation will "likely" use
> a null pointer is not an answer because, what if the implementation
> doesn't use a null pointer? I.e., my question is the more general one:
> how do optimizations that are specific to the front-end language get
> done? How does the front-end "secret knowledge" get passed through
> somehow so it can be used for optimization purposes?
>
> Apologies for sounding skeptical, I'm just trying to nail down an
> answer to a kindof philosophical question.
>
> ------
>
> Another question: does LLVM know about or handle signal frames? What
> if code wants to unwind across a signal frame? This is another thing
> that would be required for Java if e.g. you wanted to detect null
> pointer access via signals. Note setjmp/longjmp works OK across signal
> frames.
>
> Thanks,
> -Archie
>
> __________________________________________________________________________
> Archie Cobbs      *        CTO, Awarix        *      http://www.awarix.com
>
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--

Alkis