Previous patch c38dc3ccc7 allowed any
object to be compared with any other, using pointer comparison for a
fallback. As such, existing code which checked for this case is no
longer needed.
This saves a lot of RAM for 2 reasons:
1. For functions that don't have default values, var args or var kw
args (which is a large number of functions in the general case), the
mp_obj_fun_bc_t type now fits in 1 GC block (previously needed 2 because
of the extra pointer to point to the arg_names array). So this saves 16
bytes per function (32 bytes on 64-bit machines).
2. Combining separate memory regions generally saves RAM because the
unused bytes at the end of the GC block are saved for 1 of the blocks
(since that block doesn't exist on its own anymore). So generally this
saves 8 bytes per function.
Tested by importing lots of modules:
- 64-bit Linux gave about an 8% RAM saving for 86k of used RAM.
- pyboard gave about a 6% RAM saving for 31k of used RAM.
Stack is full descending and must be 8-byte aligned. It must start off
pointing to just above the last byte of RAM.
Previously, stack started pointed to last byte of RAM (eg 0x2001ffff)
and so was not 8-byte aligned. This caused a bug in combination with
alloca.
This patch also updates some debug printing code.
Addresses issue #872 (among many other undiscovered issues).
Code-info size, block name, source name, n_state and n_exc_stack now use
variable length encoded uints. This saves 7-9 bytes per bytecode
function for most functions.
Because (for Thumb) a function pointer has the LSB set, pointers to
dynamic functions in RAM (eg native, viper or asm functions) were not
being traced by the GC. This patch is a comprehensive fix for this.
Addresses issue #820.
Such mechanism is important to get stable Python functioning, because Python
function calling is handled with C stack. The idea is to sprinkle
STACK_CHECK() calls in places where there can be C recursion.
TODO: Add more STACK_CHECK()'s.
Paul Sokolovsky
Damien George