threads branch status update

[Andy Dougherty]

On Mon, 16 Apr 2012, Stefan Seifert wrote:

> So I guess it's time to throw a couple of more eyeballs at this branch. It 
> will also offer plenty of opportunity for further improvements. It's got 
> everything from a beginner's exercise like making the number of threads 
> configurable or even auto-tuned to the number of available CPU cores to 
> challenges like getting rid of the locks in the GC.

Here's what I found on Solaris 11/x86 with Sun's compiler:

First, I needed to apply this patch (void functions can't return a
value):

diff --git a/src/gc/gc_gms.c b/src/gc/gc_gms.c
index a43293d..f528d67 100644
--- a/src/gc/gc_gms.c
+++ b/src/gc/gc_gms.c
@@ -2057,7 +2057,8 @@ gc_gms_write_barrier(PARROT_INTERP, ARGMOD(PMC *pmc))
     ASSERT_ARGS(gc_gms_write_barrier)
 
     if (PObj_is_shared_TEST(pmc) && Interp_flags_TEST(interp, PARROT_IS_THREAD)) {
-        return gc_gms_write_barrier(interp->thread_data->main_interp, pmc);
+        gc_gms_write_barrier(interp->thread_data->main_interp, pmc);
+        return;
     }
 
     if (interp->thread_data)

Next, I needed to apply this patch to the generated file
src/pmc/proxy.c.  I know it is generated, but I can't find where the
erroneous lines come from.  These are all more instances of void
functions trying to return a value.

--- a/src/pmc/proxy.c	2012-04-17 15:55:14.736468142 -0400
+++ b/src/pmc/proxy.c.fixed	2012-04-17 15:55:03.350687985 -0400
@@ -775,7 +775,7 @@
 static  void
 Parrot_Proxy_destroy(PARROT_INTERP, ARGMOD(PMC *_self))
 {
-    return VTABLE_destroy(interp, PARROT_PROXY(_self)->target);
+    VTABLE_destroy(interp, PARROT_PROXY(_self)->target);
 }
 static  PMC *
 Parrot_Proxy_divide(PARROT_INTERP, ARGMOD(PMC *_self), PMC *value, PMC *dest)
@@ -1011,7 +1011,7 @@
 static  void
 Parrot_Proxy_freeze(PARROT_INTERP, ARGMOD(PMC *_self), PMC *info)
 {
-    return VTABLE_freeze(interp, PARROT_PROXY(_self)->target, info);
+    VTABLE_freeze(interp, PARROT_PROXY(_self)->target, info);
 }
 static  PMC *
 Parrot_Proxy_get_attr_keyed(PARROT_INTERP, ARGMOD(PMC *_self), PMC *key, STRING *idx)
@@ -2415,7 +2415,7 @@
 static  void
 Parrot_Proxy_visit(PARROT_INTERP, ARGMOD(PMC *_self), PMC *info)
 {
-    return VTABLE_visit(interp, PARROT_PROXY(_self)->target, info);
+    VTABLE_visit(interp, PARROT_PROXY(_self)->target, info);
 }
 static  void
 Parrot_Proxy_add_attribute_orig(PARROT_INTERP, ARGMOD(PMC *_self), STRING *name, PMC *type)


Then, the tests hung on t/pmc/task.t.  Here's the specific output:
./parrot t/pmc/task.t
1..6
ok 1 - initialized
ok 2 task1 ran
ok 3 task2 ran
ok 4 sub1 ran

[At this point it hangs].

I tried the examples, but I don't know what any of them are supposed
to do, so I don't know what's expected.

./parrot examples/threads/chameneos.pir 
going to sleep
This is 0 and I'm Yellow
This is 1 and I'm Blue
This is 2 and I'm Red
This is 3 and I'm Blue

    Then it hangs.


./winxed examples/threads/matrix_part.winxed  

    gobbles up all available memory, doesn't print anything, and
    hangs.

./parrot examples/threads/moretasks.pir 

    prints out lots of oks, then lots of 0s, then runs out of memory
    and panics.

./parrot examples/threads/tasks.pir 

    prints out long strings of a's and b's without stopping.  After a
    while, I killed it.

I hope this is of some help,

-- 
    Andy Dougherty		doughera at lafayette.edu