Self-interest January 1994

self-interest@lists.selflanguage.org

6 participants
6 discussions

modified 3.0 release on archive sites
by Mario.Wolczko＠Eng.Sun.COM 18 Jan '94

18 Jan '94

A slightly modified version of the 3.0 release was placed on self.stanford.edu and mushroom.cs.man.ac.uk at the weekend. The affected files are: Self.tar.gz Optional.SelfSource.tar.gz in both the sun4 and svr4 distributions. There is a new file, called KNOWN-PROBLEMS, which documents some of the problems which have been encountered, and possible workarounds (a copy is appended). The changes are (together with the names of the modified modules): - Slightly modified default font names; the previous defaults did not work under MIT X11R5 - A bug fix for error notifiers (they did not go away automatically) - A bug fix in handling the Paste key (using it outside the text editor could cause problems) - An improved version of CheckInstall - A fix for the comparator (it couldn't be dismissed) If you have a working Self system, you can bring it up to date by evaluating the code at the end of this message (from "cut here"): place it in a file called, say, fixes.sm, and then at the Self prompt enter 'fixes.sm' _RunScript You should then save the world. -Mario Wolczko Sun Microsystems Labs., Inc., 2550 Garcia Ave, M/S MTV 29-116, Mountain View, CA 94043, U.S.A. tel: 415 336 6022, fax: 415 969 7269. ====================KNOWN-PROBLEMS Spy won't start --------------- If you're using MIT X11R5 and not OpenWindows, the default font for the spy is unavailable. You should try setting a different font and restarting it: _SpyFont: 'fixed' _Spy: true Sluggish behavior ----------------- If the performance of the ui is poor, with menus taking more than a second to respond, and objects taking many seconds to appear or disappear, consider the following actions: - If your machine doesn't have a graphics accelerator (such as a basic SparcStation 1 or 2, or IPC), you can turn animation off with the Self expression ui animationOff - If Self is paging heavily (as reported by the spy, by large numbers in the "pi" and "po" column of vmstat, of by continuous disk activity), close as many other applications as you can. Also, it may be worth decreasing the size of the Self heap by setting the environment variable OLDSIZE. The default size is 10Mb; reducing this by 1000000 or 2000000 may help. - In the worst case, you will need to get more RAM. This is likely if you have 28Mb or less; some 10Mb are required by Unix and OpenWindows/X. One option is to run Self remotely; this may solve the memory problem, but display will be impacted adversely. If are paging across the network, we do not recommend running Self on a machine with less than 32Mb. In any case, if you have performance problems, please report the problems and the machine configuration (model, memory and swap sizes, display type, OS version, and display system (OpenWindows or MIT or other, with version)) to self-bugs(a)self.stanford.edu, as the Self group would like to characterise performance problems more accurately in order to address them in future patches and releases. Known bugs for which patches are forthcoming (as of 14 Jan 94) -------------------------------------------------------------- None ====================cut here for fixes preferences boxCodeFont: 'lucidasanstypewriter-12'. preferences buttonFont: 'lucidasans-10'. preferences _AddSlots: ( | { 'Category: copying' _ setDefaultPreferences = ( "ugh: added for filing out" allowArrowGrabbing: true. blurArrows: false. blurBodies: true. boxCodeFont: 'lucidasanstypewriter-12'. boxFont: 'lucidasans-12'. boxObjectNameFont: 'lucidasans-12'. boxParentFont: 'lucidasans-12'. boxPrivateFont: 'lucidasans-italic-12'. boxPrivateParentFont: 'lucidasans-italic-12'. boxPublicFont: 'lucidasans-bold-12'. boxPublicParentFont: 'lucidasans-bold-12'. buttonFont: 'lucidasans-10'. clickRaiseLowerUI: false. contentsInSpecialFont: false. defaultSlotCountThreshold: 5. filesToShow: set copyRemoveAll. fixedEditorFont: 'lucidasans-12'. initialWindowRect: ((0)@(0)) #! ((629)@(394)). isearchIgnoreCase: true. menuFont: 'lucidasans-12'. mergeAssignmentSlots: true. noisy: true. notifierWaitTime: 10. printStackOnError: true. showParentStar: true. textEditorFont: '6x13'. uiAnimationDelay: 10. uiColorFile: 'ui.colors'. uiFullScreen: false. uiIconFile: 'ui.icon'. useAmpersandToBackground: false. useFontStyles: true. xDisplay: ''. highlightParseError: true). _ thisObjectPrints = true. } | ) traits userInterface uiWorld _AddSlots: ( | { 'Category: keying' kbdPaste = ( (myUI mirrorInPasteBuffer lookupKey: 'clone') isEmpty ifFalse: [ myUI add: myUI mirrorInPasteBuffer reflectee clone ] ). } | ) traits windowing diffViewer _AddSlots: ( | ^ init = ( | h = 100. slW = 13. tW = 300. | offsetFromBody: 0@0. cancelButton: (button copySize: 58@16) name: 'Dismiss'. cancelButton command: (| p* = traits clonable. textEditor. doIt: context = (textEditor display. context body banish). doIt: context Shift: shift = ( doIt: context ). |) copy textEditor: self. addContext: cancelButton At: (140@140) + boxFaceOffset. methodSlider: (slider copySize: slW @ h) name: 'slider1'. addContext: methodSlider At: (2@2) + boxFaceOffset + (topMargin @ sideMargin). methodSlider value: 0. methodView: (methodView copySize: tW @ h) name: 'text1'. addContext: methodView At: (2@2) + boxFaceOffset + ((slW + 2)@0) + (topMargin @ sideMargin). methodView init. methodView2: (methodView2 copySize: tW @ h) name: 'text2'. addContext: methodView2 At: (2@2) + boxFaceOffset + ((slW + 2 + tW + 2)@0) + (topMargin @ sideMargin). methodView2 init. methodSlider2: (slider copySize: slW @ h) name: 'slider2'. addContext: methodSlider2 At: (2@2) + boxFaceOffset + ((slW + 2 + tW + tW)@0) + (topMargin @ sideMargin). methodSlider2 value: 0. resizeHandle: resizeButton copySize: 10@10. addContext: resizeHandle At: 10@10. resize: size). | )

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adding gc support to gcc (was Re: Self + GCC)
by moss＠ibis.cs.umass.edu 03 Jan '94

03 Jan '94

We did not exactly "run into problems" adding gc to gcc. It's not a trivial thing to do, but we did it, and the stuff could be re-used in other systems. What we did is described in our paper at SIGPLAN PLDI 1992. We _did_ do it only for a specific architecture, though it should not be all that hard to port. Hope this helps .... Eliot J. Eliot B. Moss, Associate Professor Computer Science Department, LGRC University of Massachusetts Box 34610 Amherst MA 01003-4610 (413) 545-4206, 545-1249 (fax); Moss(a)cs.umass.edu

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Re: Self + GCC
by urs＠cs.stanford.edu 03 Jan '94

03 Jan '94

Re the "Self on [your-favorite-OS/your-favorite-architecture]" thread: we'd love to make Self available on more platforms. An OS port shouldn't be too hard, as long as the OS is Unix-like; the biggest problem would probably be the signal handling code (non-blocking I/O etc). Porting to a different architecture is harder since it requires rewriting the compiler back end and run-time glue. Given an acute lack of time (some of us are trying to graduate :-) it's not likely that we'll do that anytime soon. But if someone wants to give it a shot I'm sure we could at least give some support in deciphering the code... > What's the possibility of using GCC as a compiler backend for Self? > I was extoling the virtues of Self to rms, who didn't realize it was > free, and is now much more interested in it, but would like it to be > portable. It would be terrific to be able to use the GCC back end - porting would be so much easier. Last time I looked into it, I found three problems, all of which might require some serious hacking to fix: 1. GCC is not GC-aware (despite it's name :-). To support garbage collection, the runtime system needs to know where the pointers are (both as constants in the code and in terms of register contents). This requires the back end to "document" its optimizations carefully, i.e., to output some descriptors telling the GC system where things are. Eliot Moss' group tried doing this for Modula-3, and as far as I know they ran into some problems. 2. Self needs full source-level debugging. That is, every optimization has to be 100% user-transparent. As far as I could tell, GCC would need to be changed quite a bit to support this. 3. Compilation speed. Self uses run-time (dynamic) compilation -- the first time you pop up a menu, the menu-popping code has to be compiled. Though the GCC backend isn't slow in conventional (batch-style) terms, it is probably too slow for interactive use. Especially if it goes through the extra step of generating assembly text. Then there are some more minor issues, such as generating code into memory rather than into a.out or .o files, but that probably won't be a biggie. Maybe someone more familiar with the GCC back end could comment on the feasibility of making these changes? -Urs

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Self + GCC
by hopkins＠kaleida.com 03 Jan '94

03 Jan '94

What's the possibility of using GCC as a compiler backend for Self? I was extoling the virtues of Self to rms, who didn't realize it was free, and is now much more interested in it, but would like it to be portable. -Don

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Re: Self on Linux?
by lpd＠aladdin.com 03 Jan '94

03 Jan '94

Re <9401030132.AA06468(a)otis.Stanford.EDU> <199401030010.AA23275(a)extra.ucc.su.OZ.AU>: > Subject: Re: Self on Linux? > To: urs(a)cs.stanford.edu > Date: Mon, 3 Jan 1994 11:10:52 +1100 (EST) > In-Reply-To: <CMM.0.90.2.757534734.urs@otis> from "Urs Hoelzle" at Jan 2, 94 > 10:18:54 am > Resent-To: real-self-interest(a)otis.Stanford.EDU > Resent-Date: Sun, 2 Jan 94 17:32:47 PST > Resent-From: Urs Hoelzle <urs(a)otis.stanford.edu> > > > Is there any chance of having self compiled > for Linux? > IMHO it would make a difference for people > who are programming-literate and do not have > Suns at home. There are potentially few thousands > of them, and the number is growing pretty fast. > What do you think? If you build it, they will come. :-) Purely by coincidence, I sent private e-mail to David Ungar about this just a couple of weeks ago. I would like to see this too. -- L. Peter Deutsch

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Re: Self on Linux?
by Object Oriented 03 Jan '94

03 Jan '94

Is there any chance of having self compiled for Linux? IMHO it would make a difference for people who are programming-literate and do not have Suns at home. There are potentially few thousands of them, and the number is growing pretty fast. What do you think? Piotr Palacz Consultant Object Oriented Pty Ltd PO Box 1826 North Sydney NSW 2059 Australia Tel (02) 957 1092 Fax (02) 956 5089

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Self-interest January 1994