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.
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.
This patch simplifies the glue between native emitter and runtime,
and handles viper code like inline assember: return values are
converted to Python objects.
Fixes issue #531.
Blanket wide to all .c and .h files. Some files originating from ST are
difficult to deal with (license wise) so it was left out of those.
Also merged modpyb.h, modos.h, modstm.h and modtime.h in stmhal/.
Closed over variables are now passed on the stack, instead of creating a
tuple and passing that. This way memory for the closed over variables
can be allocated within the closure object itself. See issue #510 for
background.
Attempt to address issue #386. unique_code_id's have been removed and
replaced with a pointer to the "raw code" information. This pointer is
stored in the actual byte code (aligned, so the GC can trace it), so
that raw code (ie byte code, native code and inline assembler) is kept
only for as long as it is needed. In memory it's now like a tree: the
outer module's byte code points directly to its children's raw code. So
when the outer code gets freed, if there are no remaining functions that
need the raw code, then the children's code gets freed as well.
This is pretty much like CPython does it, except that CPython stores
indexes in the byte code rather than machine pointers. These indices
index the per-function constant table in order to find the relevant
code.
Partly (very partly!) addresses issue #386. Most importantly, at the
REPL command line, each invocation does not now lead to increased memory
usage (unless you define a function/lambda).
Damien George