BeeYourself

Experiments in porting Powerlang/Bee-DMR bootstrap to Cuis

Nota Bene: very pre-Alpha [Broken, but package now loads with: "Feature require: 'Powerlang'"]

Background:

• http://esug.org/data/ESUG2014/IWST/Papers/iwst2014_Design%20and%20implementation%20of%20Bee%20Smalltalk%20Runtime.pdf [Bee Runtime]
• http://stefan-marr.de/downloads/dls17-pimas-et-al-garbage-collection-and-efficiency-in-dynamic-metacircular-runtimes.pdf [Bee GC]
• https://www.slideshare.net/esug/bee-smalltalk-runtime-anchors-aweigh
• https://2017.splashcon.org/details/meta-2017/3/Metaphysics-Towards-a-Robust-Framework-for-Remotely-Working-with-Potentially-Broken- [Bee Remote Debug]
• https://powerlang.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
• https://github.com/powerlang [Bee Bootstrap]
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWPMBSvYrs8 [Smalltalk VM Hackathon]
• http://www.smalltalksystems.com/publications/avmarch.pdf [A Smalltalk Virtual Machine Architectural Model]
• https://github.com/powerlang/bee-dmr [Source Code Repo (Tonel Format; see note below)]
• https://melkyades.github.io/assets/images/Thesis.pdf [Thesis: Objects All the Way Down]

Scattered Thoughts

We explain the world through stories.

• In pushing compute interface from a virtual machine down into actual hardware, we need to (re)present the HW compute context in the runtime. ["Stories all the way down" => "Comprehensible all the way down"].
• In particular the Debug Context needs to be improved [also: REPL backstop Debugger].
• We need to present runtime services as telling stories, stories written in Smalltalk.
• Compiler optimization by program transformation is optimization by stories with measurement to see what pays for itself. [Efficient => apt metaphor]
• Smalltalk is a self-presenting mediator between hardware and software.

Where does this lead us?

Thread as VCPU (Virtual CPU), when running is assigned to real CPU (core). VCPU object follows Bee pattern: OOP points just past header to register/CPU-state save area, followed by Thread Local Storage (e.g. per-thread dynamic context).

When a Debug Thread is running, the debugged thread is not, so VCPU registers are directly inspectable as VCPU instance variables.

The natural model is to think of the runtime like a RTOS (Real Time OS) Kernel. Starting an image is spawning a Primordial/Home/Mother thread which spawns worker threads (including UI, debugger(s), ?timer?, ?gc?). HW interrupt reflected through Mother Thread to events. Mother thread spawns and cares for workers.

Smalltalk is the mediator between raw HW and its SW presentation.

Smalltalk is a system that knows itself.**

The stories written in Smalltalk explain the computational world view.

Machine <<==Smalltalk==>> Presentation

Stack <<=========>> Linked Contexts

Regs+Mem <<=====>> Objects+ivars/slots

Instructions <<=====>> Operations/[Macro]Opcodes

Possible Register Usage

Bee      Aarch64     RISCV  Notes
---      -------     -----  =====
IP        -           -     Program Counter [access by instruction]
SP        SP*        X2     Stack Pointer
FP        R29        X8     Frame Pointer
R         R0/R1      X10/X11    Receiver=Self / Return Value
M         R19        X19    Method Address
S         R20        X20    Selector
E         R21        X21    Environment [Escaping Variables]
A         R2-7       X12-17 Arguments [1..6] (spill to stack}
T         R9-12      X28-31 Temporaries/Volitile (non-object values)
V         R22        X22    Temp Object Value (???)
G         R23        X23    Smalltalk Globals (Vector of Objects)
nil       R24        X24    (needed? -> StackLimit)
true      R25        X25    (needed? -> NextAlloc)
false     R26        X26    (needed? -> AllocLimit)

Visualize & Explain Runtime Structures & Strategies

• Hash & Cache
  • PICs
  • Symbol interning
  • Dictionaries
• Constat Propagation
• Object Layouts
• Horizontal (bitstring) vs Vertical (index) Encoding
• Control flow
  • Interrupts; exceptions
• GC
  • Storage allocation; tagging
  • Pinned objects
  • When is it stable?
  • What needs to be pinned? [VCPUs;GC code;..]

Find Still/Save Points

• Don't change the code for a method while the method is being executed [ e.g. during message-send; library loading ]
• Don't add/remove elements of a collection as it is being traversed
• Don't move (gc) objects while they are being referenced
• Note live-update rubrics; atomics; lock-free/wait-free

Learn Smalltalk = Learn all of Computer Science

• Recursion
• Color
• Time(r)
• Mappings (colors;floats;integers;chars;..)
• Compile; runtime-libs; gc; multicore; iNet;..
• Emergent Properties

Look, Ma, no compiler

Should be able to port by cross-compiling nativizer for new platform and cross/pre-nativise the loader. Let loader nativise methods during load. Simple port w/o running a compiler.

Playtime:

Feature require: 'Powerlang'.

SCompiler compile:  'foo [true ifTrue: [^self]]' in: UndefinedObject.
(SCompiler forClass: UndefinedObject) smalltalkCompiler  compileMethod:   'foo [true ifTrue: [^self]]' .

Browsing Tonel Source Files

cd Cuis-Smalltalk
git clone https://github.com/KenDickey/Cuis-Smalltalk-Tonel-Browser

Then

Feature require: 'ExchangeFormat-Tonel-Lite'.

You should be able to open a File List, select a Tonel file, and click on the code button to view in a Code Browser.

Licences

• See LICENCES directory: Acuerna, JavierPimas (Quorum Software) and Cuis -- all MIT.
• Packages typically specify copyright but unspecified => Cuis.

** "What is a System? Simply a set of things that are interconnected in ways that produce distinct patterns of behavior." Doughnut Economics, Kate Raworth.