7.4: adda
/translate/tasklets:
.
tasklet here means
a chunk of app that is considered by
the task scheduler to be
a unit of time slicing,
allowed to be run uninterrupted .
. it comes from Ada's "(task),
a thread of execution,
and is a way of translating c's
single-threaded model
into a multi-threaded one .
--
. definitions of tasklet by others
include
stackless`threads
and
linux:
"(Tasklets are a deferred-execution method
as a way for interrupt handlers to schedule work
to be done in the very near future.
a tasklet is a function(of data pointer)
to be called in a software interrupt
as soon as the kernel finishes running
an interrupt handler .
)[7.7:
. app's are calling to the system
only for system resources:
for things they need permission to share
like ipc, and file sharing .]
. if app's have to call back
to system for so much,
why chop them into tasklets?
. why can't apps simply
call task mgt periodically
and in every loop ?
#:
. also need to watch for
mutual recursion loops
where stack over-use
is more dangerous than time hogging .
#:
. periodic calls to system might work for
multi-tasking system work
like when an app gives the system's
controller-view obj's a chance to
interact with user;
but, for giving many concurrent app's
a fair share of time slices,
that requires tasklets .
. c has no concept of threads,
each with their own stack,
so c's one system stack must be reserved for
only the tasklet-running system;
the calls to apps are not c calls at all .
tasklets are modeled from asm:
. each thread's program
is an array of tasklets;
pc: index into array of tasklets;
sp: ptr to thread's stack;
task mgt calls are
(thread#pc)(sp) .
7.6: adda/tasklets/goto's:
. the tasklet plan is complicated by
the looping made by goto's?
just treat each loop's {entry, exit} points
as instructions,
and the blocks between those instr's
will be tasklets .
. this will put at least 2 yield points
in every loop .
adda/tasklets/declare.blocks:
. recall nested declare.blocks
can create new locals,
so at level#n,
the thread has a local's array
with n ptrs to [decl'block` act'rec]'s
(one for each nest level) .
7.7:
. threads do need their own artificial stack:
each call to another sub
is considered a tasklet
unless it's calling a sub that is so brief
that it hasn't been broken into tasklets .
[7.27:
. there's basically 2 kinds of calls:
app calls that run an algorithm;
and type'mgt calls that do
brief operations on their members .
app calls are kept on the thread's
artificial stack,
whereas, calls to brief operations
are allowed to run on the c`stack .]
. one way is already written:
"(. all c routines
take an arg of where to start .
. the routine exits by returning
what step it should continue at .
)
-- if that is written somewhere
it's a defunct writing:
.the better way is to replace all calls
with the system's style of calls .
. I'm worried that any arificial stack idea
will be no more efficient than
just doing vm code?
. every artificial call
becomes a stack & exit
but not every call
needs to be a separate tasklet .
. also, the tasklet idea is meant only for
the app's that want multi-threading;
so, tasklets can be as unresponsive
as app's can tolerate;
adda's insured gui response,
on the other hand,
comes from adda embedding code into app's,
so that all code is frequently
calling the system to handle real-time .
