[M3devel] HEADS UP: Release engineering, was: Re: CM3 Release

[Rodney M. Bates]

Any opinions about the TEXT branch?  Anybody tried it? To summarize:

- I have tested it extensively on LINUXLIBC6, with a large random
  test program and two successive rebuilds of CM3.

- It makes no changes in data structure, neither to static declarations
  nor to invariants.  Thus it creates no compatibility problems with 
existing
  pickles, etc.
 
- It slows down concatenation, but more than makes it up in other
  string accessing operations, if the numbers of concatenations and
  accessing operations are equal.

- It cuts down on tree depth and even more or recursion depth
  (which implies needed stack space.)

- This effect is dramatic when strings are built by "linear" concatenations,
  i.e., strictly left-to-right, or vice versa.  Gains are moderate when
  concatenations are random.

- It allocates a lot more storage, but abandons a lot more garbage,
  retaining somewhat more space when lots of old strings are retained
  along with newly-built ones.  It probably retains less when operand
  strings of concatenations are not kept, but I haven't measured that.

- Strategies are partial rebalancing of concatenation trees, flattening
  of short concatenations, elimination of a lot of tail-recursion, and
  recursing on the shorter side.

 

Olaf Wagner wrote:
> Well, that's a quite long list; but many things are bug fixes anyway,
> and wouldn't be affected by a code freeze, while others are already
> finished (as integrating CVSup, as I understand).
>
> The only thing we should not do is introduce new platforms while
> trying to get the system stable. We should concentrate on installation
> support and bug fixing.
>
> I'd suggest to start the release process in about two weeks at the
> start of May. That should give everybody enough time to either finish
> their ongoing work that shall make it into the release or decide to
> postpone it ;-)
>
> Any objections?
>
> Olaf
>
> Quoting Jay <jay.krell at cornell.edu>:
>
>>
>>  > > o When should we start? I.e. wha changes would you like to complete
>>  > > before we start the release process?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  I'd like to see the formsvbt crash debugged and fixed, unless I'm  
>> the only one seeing it.
>>
>>  I only see it on Solaris and PPC_DARWIN but haven't tried "everything".
>>
>>  I'll try to get this.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I'd also like to see:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   FreeBSD/x86 switched to the new Unix/*.i3 files. I'll do this.
>>
>>     Maybe also I386_DARWIN, AMD64_DARWIN, but I don't have the hardware.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   $ORIGIN/LD_LIBRARY_PATH resolved a bit further, probably very  
>> little work  (I'll do this).
>>
>>   Basically just 1) put buildlocal back how it was 2) push it across 
>>  more platforms e.g. I think FreeBSD/x86 is the main one missing, 
>> but  I'll get to it.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   cvsup building and in "std"  (I'll do this, probably very little  
>> left here really.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   -- beyond this, not required for release --
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   Maybe more AMD64 releases, e.g. NetBSD and Solaris. (If I get to it).
>>
>>    (could be "mingw64" is good enough to try AMD64_NT now).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   Maybe update gmp/mpfr to fix the "maintainer" problem. (not likely 
>> by me)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   Maybe more new/resuscitated platforms..HPPA64_HPUX, IA64_*, *_VMS, 
>>  ALPHA_*, ARM_*, *_IRIX, *_AIX, MIPS64_*.... but these take back 
>> seat  to important fixes in existing platforms.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   Fix NT386 to use setjmp3 instead of setjmp so exceptions don't  
>> skip C __finally blocks. I've just been very lazy here, should  
>> demonstrate the behavior with a test case, then fix it..
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   Maybe fix cm3cg so other -g options besides -gstabs works, like  
>> plain -g, -ggdb, on at least one platform -gstabs isn't supported,  
>> leaving nothing, because others cause internal compiler errors, like 
>>  on HPPA64_HPUX.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   Oh, and NT386GNU probably switched back to Win32 threads.  
>> Otherwise one of the test cases hangs and it doesn't look easy to  
>> figure out. I'll do this shortly if I remember.
>>
>>  But I also wouldn't mind if this platform isn't officially released 
>>  either (unless someone else wants to support it).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  Debug why many NT386MINGNU gui apps crash..but also probably just  
>> don't release this platform and ok asis.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   - Jay
>>
>
>
>