2015/06/16

DISCLAIMER: These notes are from the defunct k8 project which precedes SquirrelJME. The notes for SquirrelJME start on 2016/02/26! The k8 project was effectively a Java SE 8 operating system and as such all of the notes are in the context of that scope. That project is no longer my goal as SquirrelJME is the spiritual successor to it.

09:04

Stepping away from DiagnosticListener and going for my own so I do not need the compact3 profile.

12:15

Thought about KBFs also being FormClass, however that might be a bit iffy. FormClass is a great extrapolation but it is a bit bloated in terms of binary due to the very object oriented nature of it. I can represent all the needed runtime information, including stuff such as annotation in C structures. The structures can just be of a very defined format. Everything could be described as a raw C binary/structure for the most part. This way I can have a more clean layout, and so everything will not be described by a FormClass. Each class however will require C level initialization. That initialization will do stuff such as binding objects together and resolving names. Since super classes and their types are unknown, each structure type will need a base form that points to an offset of class local data.

15:30

I do wonder though if my thought about jclass is really truly the java.lang.Class object. And looking at the specs for JNI, they are. This means that most of the stuff in Object, Class, and String are mostly native.

18:47

The way CacheRepository works right now, will not work because using FormClass to represent class information is a bit ugly. FormClass is a very nice abstract representation of class information and such. I need a streamlined and nice way, but an abstract way to have it so I can have class information that is both a FormClass and a binary object which can be loaded into memory. It also has to be abstract enough to support views into the data it represents. FormClass is great for representing class data, but it is very high level and would not work well for a binary interface. This new binary format will essentially have a view into the data as respected types. So it becomes a giant blob of data for the most part, where C compiled bits can be plastered on top of. Now for abstract data, it can either be directly access or through a representing class interface. So the data basically acts as both in a way. One where it is a liked abstraction like FormClass, but also one that the kernel can use directly to link and execute. Basically, all of the data will be a ByteBuffer and there will be a FormClass like view into it. I would have to modify my class loader so that I can do it similarly the same with a builder. The FormClass stuff is already read-only, and for execution to work it will also have to be read only in the new code also. I suppose a FormClass would work better in a mutable manner, but I designed it as immutable. So there could be a better flat format, which is what I have talked about previously. As for reading Java class files directly into this flat format, that I would have to think about. Instead of loading everything at once I can essentially just streamline conversion from a class file into a KBF all at once. That way there is no intermediate Java code objects to work with at all. So some kind of linear object format that is fully tables. My obvious limitations would be the read/write order. Obviously fields and methods are to be done first while some class processing information needs to be done later such as bootstrap methods.

20:21

There would also need to be debugging information like file and line layouts. But I would suppose that a straight through conversion of the files will work out to be faster and less memory intensive in the long run. I can still keep my FormClass in a new more efficient way...

20:54

Then this would mean that all of my core-compiler packages are going to essentially be merged, and some of the ASM stuff moved off elsewhere. With C translation and compilation, this means NARF is on its last threads. NARF and the core-compiler system will live on in a new "kernel-binary" package which will have the new ByteBuffer based class information.

22:26

The basic KBF format, will essentially be a table of contents since that is the only way I can think of how I can effectively represent dynamic data. Basically offsets from the base of the data and the size of them. The TOC allows for more data to be represented and as such it would be easier to read information from it. TOC types would be much simpler also to parse as there would be no need to do complex things when it comes to them. TOCs could also be embedded within TOCs. The TOCs should also be small since once the class is linked in they are not really needed anymore. Any required header a information could also be auto generated as needed too, sort of. Even in ROM based system some initialization information which points to areas referenced by the TOC will be needed. However although there would be a semi-double reference in some areas, the true jclass object will just point already to said information.

22:35

Kind of think of it, KBF objects are essentially going to be very similar to Palm databases which are very similar yet are directly executable in memory. And as for StructClass, information such as the name of something does not require everything to exist at once in Java. I can also use CharSequence to look inside bits of the buffer for certain things too.

23:22

The table of contents bears a resemblence to the constant pool except that its size is known and the entries can be directly referenced. I am going to use UTF-16 Strings the same as Java however since they can be directly linked with String objects, which means they point to there. As for the table of contents I can have a major one and then smaller ones. That would vary however. A table of table of contents. That could work for methods and annotations although it could get rather deep in representation. I believe only fields and methods then should have table of contents, all of the others should use more known structured data. Fields and methods will share a base, but their inner TOC will describe stuff such as debug info or native code.

23:33

With a TOC, KBFs could embed other KBFs too. Well it would be best if it supported arbitrary files also. Basically a KBF is similar to a JAR. Funny how something that was done in an old OS that I really enjoyed helped me out. So the resulting kernel binary is going to be a KBF which contains other KBFs. Since KBFs would naturally be directly executable there is no such problem.

23:49

About to fall asleep however, so it would be best if I do so. Watch some Stargate SG-1 while I fall asleep. Moebius. I can do work when I am fully awake and sane.