When an exception is raised and is to be handled by the VM, it is stored
on the Python value stack so the bytecode can access it. CPython stores
3 objects on the stack for each exception: exc type, exc instance and
traceback. uPy followed this approach, but it turns out not to be
necessary. Instead, it is enough to store just the exception instance on
the Python value stack. The only place where the 3 values are needed
explicitly is for the __exit__ handler of a with-statement context, but
for these cases the 3 values can be extracted from the single exception
instance.
This patch removes the need to store 3 values on the stack, and instead
just stores the exception instance.
Code size is reduced by about 50-100 bytes, the compiler and VM are
slightly simpler, generate bytecode is smaller (by 2 bytes for each try
block), and the Python value stack is reduced in size for functions that
handle exceptions.
With the previous patch combining 3 emit functions into 1, it now makes
sense to also combine the corresponding VM opcodes, which is what this
patch does. This eliminates 2 opcodes which simplifies the VM and reduces
code size, in bytes: bare-arm:44, minimal:64, unix(NDEBUG,x86-64):272,
stmhal:92, esp8266:200. Profiling (with a simple script that creates many
list/dict/set comprehensions) shows no measurable change in performance.
These can be used to insert arbitrary checks, polling, etc into the VM.
They are left general because the VM is a highly tuned loop and it should
be up to a given port how that port wants to modify the VM internals.
One common use would be to insert a polling check, but only done after
a certain number of opcodes were executed, so as not to slow down the VM
too much. For example:
#define MICROPY_VM_HOOK_COUNT (30)
#define MICROPY_VM_HOOK_INIT static uint vm_hook_divisor = MICROPY_VM_HOOK_COUNT
#define MICROPY_VM_HOOK_POLL if (--vm_hook_divisor == 0) { \
vm_hook_divisor = MICROPY_VM_HOOK_COUNT;
extern void vm_hook_function(void);
vm_hook_function();
}
#define MICROPY_VM_HOOK_LOOP MICROPY_VM_HOOK_POLL
#define MICROPY_VM_HOOK_RETURN MICROPY_VM_HOOK_POLL
Fixes#1684 and makes "not" match Python semantics. The code is also
simplified (the separate MP_BC_NOT opcode is removed) and the patch saves
68 bytes for bare-arm/ and 52 bytes for minimal/.
Previously "not x" was implemented as !mp_unary_op(x, MP_UNARY_OP_BOOL),
so any given object only needs to implement MP_UNARY_OP_BOOL (and the VM
had a special opcode to do the ! bit).
With this patch "not x" is implemented as mp_unary_op(x, MP_UNARY_OP_NOT),
but this operation is caught at the start of mp_unary_op and dispatched as
!mp_obj_is_true(x). mp_obj_is_true has special logic to test for
truthness, and is the correct way to handle the not operation.
This allows the mp_obj_t type to be configured to something other than a
pointer-sized primitive type.
This patch also includes additional changes to allow the code to compile
when sizeof(mp_uint_t) != sizeof(void*), such as using size_t instead of
mp_uint_t, and various casts.
Main changes when MICROPY_PERSISTENT_CODE is enabled are:
- qstrs are encoded as 2-byte fixed width in the bytecode
- all pointers are removed from bytecode and put in const_table (this
includes const objects and raw code pointers)
Ultimately this option will enable persistence for not just bytecode but
also native code.
Previous to this patch each time a bytes object was referenced a new
instance (with the same data) was created. With this patch a single
bytes object is created in the compiler and is loaded directly at execute
time as a true constant (similar to loading bignum and float objects).
This saves on allocating RAM and means that bytes objects can now be
used when the memory manager is locked (eg in interrupts).
The MP_BC_LOAD_CONST_BYTES bytecode was removed as part of this.
Generated bytecode is slightly larger due to storing a pointer to the
bytes object instead of the qstr identifier.
Code size is reduced by about 60 bytes on Thumb2 architectures.
Hashing is now done using mp_unary_op function with MP_UNARY_OP_HASH as
the operator argument. Hashing for int, str and bytes still go via
fast-path in mp_unary_op since they are the most common objects which
need to be hashed.
This lead to quite a bit of code cleanup, and should be more efficient
if anything. It saves 176 bytes code space on Thumb2, and 360 bytes on
x86.
The only loss is that the error message "unhashable type" is now the
more generic "unsupported type for __hash__".
When generator raises exception, it is automatically terminated (by setting
its code_state.ip to 0), which interferes with this check.
Triggered in particular by CPython's test_pep380.py.
This doesn't handle case fo enclosed except blocks, but once again,
sys.exc_info() support is a workaround for software which uses it
instead of properly catching exceptions via variable in except clause.
The implementation is very basic and non-compliant and provided solely for
CPython compatibility. The function itself is bad Python2 heritage, its
usage is discouraged.
Before this patch a "with" block needed to create a bound method object
on the heap for the __exit__ call. Now it doesn't because we use
load_method instead of load_attr, and save the method+self on the stack.
This simplifies the API for objects and reduces code size (by around 400
bytes on Thumb2, and around 2k on x86). Performance impact was measured
with Pystone score, but change was barely noticeable.
I.e. in this mode, C stack will never be used to call a Python function,
but if there's no free heap for a call, it will be reported as
RuntimeError (as expected), not MemoryError.
Previous to this patch, a big-int, float or imag constant was interned
(made into a qstr) and then parsed at runtime to create an object each
time it was needed. This is wasteful in RAM and not efficient. Now,
these constants are parsed straight away in the parser and turned into
objects. This allows constants with large numbers of digits (so
addresses issue #1103) and takes us a step closer to #722.
This is a simple optimisation inspired by JITing technology: we cache in
the bytecode (using 1 byte) the offset of the last successful lookup in
a map. This allows us next time round to check in that location in the
hash table (mp_map_t) for the desired entry, and if it's there use that
entry straight away. Otherwise fallback to a normal map lookup.
Works for LOAD_NAME, LOAD_GLOBAL, LOAD_ATTR and STORE_ATTR opcodes.
On a few tests it gives >90% cache hit and greatly improves speed of
code.
Disabled by default. Enabled for unix and stmhal ports.
This patch consolidates all global variables in py/ core into one place,
in a global structure. Root pointers are all located together to make
GC tracing easier and more efficient.
This is for efficiency, so we don't need to subtract 1 from the ip
before storing it to code_state->ip. It saves a lot of ROM bytes on
unix and stmhal.
Mirroring ip to a volatile memory variable for each opcode is an expensive
operation. For quite a lot of often executed opcodes like stack manipulation
or jumps, exceptions cannot actually happen. So, record ip only for opcode
where that's possible.
This optimisation reduces the VM exception stack element (mp_exc_stack_t)
by 1 word, by using bit 1 of a pointer to store whether the opcode was a
FINALLY or WITH opcode. This optimisation was pending, waiting for
maturity of the exception handling code, which has now proven itself.
Saves 1 machine word RAM for each exception (4->3 words per exception).
Increases stmhal code by 4 bytes, and decreases unix x64 code by 32
bytes.
Damien George
Paul Sokolovsky
stijn