Re: [Gcl-devel] ANSI on Windows build failure.

[Camm Maguire]

Greetings!

"Mike Thomas" <address@hidden> writes:

> Hi Camm.
> 
> | 1)  I proclaimed safety to 3 and speed to 0, then saved the trad image
> |     before compiling pcl.  Subsequent build of pcl went fine, but I'm
> |     thinking now that I must have left optimizations on somehow.
> 
> I did it per the patch at the end of this message in the pcl source files:
> 
> 
> | If my guess is right (i.e. that we can currently only
> |     compile pcl with optimization), this situation should obviously not
> |     persist, but the short end is that I'd expect a function not
> |     defined error to be probable.  I've not yet reproduced it myself.
> |     Will try to look at this some more.
> 
> Thanks.

OK, applied your patch and got the same result.  We need some work to
pcl_gcl_low to be able to compile pcl without optimization.  Alas,
this still does not explain the origin of the ANSI windows crash.  If
you feel like refreshing my memory on the details, (i.e. error message
(I think in compiling pcl_braid.lisp, right?), gdb batcktrace if
possible), I'll try to give it another think.

> 
> | 2) These are due to GCL's moving 'package-operations' to the top of
> |    the init file.  We should really rework this, but it is likely not
> |    simple, as it would require toggling between reading interpreted
> |    init code and compiled function initialization code in the same
> |    initialization sequence for a given file.  Right now GCL moves such
> |    non-compiled top-level package forms to the effective top of the
> |    file, and stores them in the .data file.  Compiled functions only
> |    are in the .o file.  The init process therefore has only two places
> |    with which to distinguish and order init code -- we'd have to come
> |    up with some way of interspersing the .data and .o to preserve the
> |    strict meaning of any non-trivial top-level sequence.   I get
> |    exactly the same warnings as you do.  These warnings are often more
> |    alarming than necessary, as any package-op form which does not
> |    depend on code above it in a source file can be safely moved to the
> |    top, yet GCL currently complains for all such cases without
> |    distinguishing safe from non-safe moves.  Maybe there is a nice
> |    algorithm for this?  But again, the short end is that these exports
> |    (I think) work just fine when moved to the top despite the warning,
> |    and alas probably do not shed light on your situation.
> 
> I tried replacing:
> 
> <   (setq *non-package-operation* t)
> 
> with
> 
> >    (let ((npo-old *non-package-operation*))
> >      (setq *non-package-operation* t)
> 
> and restoring at the end of the let body throughout gcl_cmptop.lsp but
> clearly this was a naive approach as I didn't realise that the output was
> being reordered - it certainly got rid of the warnings, but unfortunately
> not the failed export!!
> 

It would be very helpful to me if someone could construct some logic
to determine when the various package operations can be safely moved
ahead of a given form.

> | 3) There are quite a few pending ansi fixes which need to go in the
> |    pcl code, and this is also the most difficult section to debug and
> |    modify, IMHO.  Luckily, cmucl uses pcl too.  I thought at one point
> |    that pcl was a finished product and that we'd just as soon work
> |    with Dr. Schelter's last copy as any, but to the contrary, I
> |    believe now that Paul's tests have sparked quite a bit of
> |    successful work on pcl in the cmucl camp.  I can see absolutely no
> |    reason for us to maintain any separate pcl tree apart from the
> |    pcl_gcl_low.lisp file -- therefore I think a very fruitful exercise
> |    is to attempt to load the cmucl pcl tree into gcl on an interpreted
> |    basis at first, and then compile, and then replace what we have
> |    with that.
> 
> Can you please briefly explain why you want to do this (I'm not objecting, I
> just don't comprehend what this would do to help us).  I loaded PCL as
> originally found in the Schelter tarballs using interpreted GCL a long time
> ago, but can't remember what happened other than the fact that I succeeded
> in doing the build.  It certainly wasn't good enough to compile CL-PDF which
> was what I really wanted to do.
> 

Well, I'd like to just sync our pcl tree with cmucl's.  Currently our
pcl appears quite optimized and is hard to debug, having many compiled
closures, etc.  Loading on an interpreted basis will reveal any
problems more clearly, I'd think.

> |  cmucl's public domain license is perfectly compatible
> |    with out lgpl.  If anyone would like to help with this, one can
> |    look at the init sequence in sys_pcl_gcl.c in unixport, and replace
> |    the pcl binary object init calls with lsp_init source calls, as in
> |    sys_pre_gcl.c.  One hopefully can then obtain an interpreted-only
> |    pcl image and go from there.  I will also be attempting this in the
> |    days to come.
> 
> I agree that if we can get a leg up from CMUCL then that is a good idea.
> 
> It's interesting that Roger Corman choose to use Closette as a starting
> point for CCL on Windows rather than PCL despite Closette's limitations.
> 

Take care,

> Cheers
> 
> Mike Thomas.
> 
> 
> =========== PCL SPEED-SAFETY PATCH ==============================
> 
> Index: pcl/defsys.lisp
> ===================================================================
> RCS file: /cvsroot/gcl/gcl/pcl/defsys.lisp,v
> retrieving revision 1.3
> diff -r1.3 defsys.lisp
> 93c93
> <   '(optimize (speed 3) (safety #+kcl 0 #-kcl 1) (space 0)
> ---
> >   '(optimize (speed 1) (safety 3) (space 0)
> Index: pcl/pcl_fin.lisp
> ===================================================================
> RCS file: /cvsroot/gcl/gcl/pcl/pcl_fin.lisp,v
> retrieving revision 1.1
> diff -r1.1 pcl_fin.lisp
> 161c161
> <   (declare (optimize (speed 3) (safety 0)))
> ---
> >   (declare (optimize (speed 1) (safety 3)))
> 360c360
> <   (declare (optimize (speed 3) (safety 0)))
> ---
> >   (declare (optimize (speed 1) (safety 3)))
> 884c884
> <   (declare (optimize (speed 3) (safety 0)))
> ---
> >   (declare (optimize (speed 1) (safety 3)))
> 1075c1075
> <   (declare (optimize (speed 3) (safety 0)))
> ---
> >   (declare (optimize (speed 1) (safety 3)))
> Index: pcl/pcl_low.lisp
> ===================================================================
> RCS file: /cvsroot/gcl/gcl/pcl/pcl_low.lisp,v
> retrieving revision 1.1
> diff -r1.1 pcl_low.lisp
> 68c68
> < (defvar *optimize-speed* '(optimize (speed 3) (safety 0)))
> ---
> > (defvar *optimize-speed* '(optimize (speed 1) (safety 3)))
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Camm Maguire                                            address@hidden
==========================================================================
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah