[pypy-commit] extradoc extradoc: merge

[edelsohn]

Author: edelsohn
Branch: extradoc
Changeset: r4096:3b2a3ebfb225
Date: 2012-02-20 20:03 -0500
http://bitbucket.org/pypy/extradoc/changeset/3b2a3ebfb225/

Log:	merge

diff --git a/planning/separate-compilation.txt b/planning/separate-compilation.txt
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/planning/separate-compilation.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+Separate Compilation
+====================
+
+Goal
+----
+
+Translation extension modules written in RPython.
+The best form is probably the MixedModule.
+
+Strategy
+--------
+
+The main executable (bin/pypy-c or libpypy-c.dll) exports RPython
+functions; this "first translation" also produces a pickled object
+that describe these functions: signatures, exception info, etc.
+
+It will probably be necessary to list all exported functions and methods,
+or mark them with some @exported decorator.
+
+The translation of an extension module (the "second translation") will
+reuse the information from the pickled object; the content of the
+MixedModule is annotated as usual, except that functions exported by
+the main executable are now external calls.
+
+The extension module simply has to export a single function
+"init_module()", which at runtime uses space operations to create and
+install a module.
+
+
+Roadmap
+-------
+
+* First, a framework to test and measure progress; builds two
+  shared libraries (.so or .dll):
+  
+  - the first one is the "core module", which exports functions 
+  - that can be called from the second module, which exports a single
+    entry point that we call call with ctypes.
+
+* Find a way to mark functions as "exported".  We need to either
+  provide a signature, or be sure that the functions is somehow
+  annotated (because it is already used by the core interpreter)
+
+* Pass structures (as opaque pointers). At this step, only the core
+  module has access to the fields.
+
+* Implement access to struct fields: an idea is to use a Controller
+  object, and redirect attribute access to the ClassRepr computed by
+  the first translation.
+
+* Implement method calls, again with the help of the Controller which
+  can replace calls to bound methods with calls to exported functions.
+
+* Share the ExceptionTransformer between the modules: a RPython
+  exception raised on one side can be caught by the other side.
+
+* Support subclassing.  Two issues here:
+
+  - isinstance() is translated into a range check, but these minid and
+    maxid work because all classes are known at translation time.
+    Subclasses defined in the second module must use the same minid
+    and maxid as their parent; isinstance(X, SecondModuleClass) should
+    use an additional field.  Be sure to not confuse classes
+    separately created in two extension modules.
+
+  - virtual methods, that override methods defined in the first
+    module.
+
+* specialize.memo() needs to know all possible values of a
+  PreBuildConstant to compute the results during translation and build
+  some kind of lookup table.  The most obvious case is the function
+  space.gettypeobject(typedef).  Fortunately a PBC defined in a module
+  can only be used from the same module, so the list of prebuilt
+  results is probably local to the same module and this is not really
+  an issue.
+
+* Integration with GC.  The GC functions should be exported from the
+  first module, and we need a way to register the static roots of the
+  second module.
+
+* Integration with the JIT.