Design

Warning

Much of the documentation in this section is very old: some of it dates back to the origin of the MPS in 1995. It has not been brought up to date or checked for correctness, so it is mainly of historical interest. As pieces of documentation are brought up to date, they will be moved to the Internals section.

• 1. Arena
  • 1.1. Introduction
  • 1.2. History
  • 1.3. Overview
  • 1.4. Definitions
  • 1.5. Requirements
    • 1.5.1. Block management
    • 1.5.2. Address translation
    • 1.5.3. Iteration protocol
    • 1.5.4. Arena partition
    • 1.5.5. Constraints
  • 1.6. Architecture
    • 1.6.1. Statics
    • 1.6.2. Arena classes
    • 1.6.3. Tracts
    • 1.6.4. Control pool
    • 1.6.5. Polling
    • 1.6.6. Commit limit
    • 1.6.7. Spare committed (aka “hysteresis”)
    • 1.6.8. Locks
    • 1.6.9. Location dependencies
    • 1.6.10. Finalization
  • 1.7. Implementation
    • 1.7.1. Tract cache
    • 1.7.2. Control pool
    • 1.7.3. Traces
    • 1.7.4. Polling
    • 1.7.5. Location dependencies
    • 1.7.6. Roots
• 2. Bit tables
  • 2.1. Introduction
  • 2.2. History
  • 2.3. Definitions
  • 2.4. Requirements
  • 2.5. Non requirements
  • 2.6. Background
  • 2.7. Clients
  • 2.8. Overview
  • 2.9. Interface
  • 2.10. Detailed design
    • 2.10.1. Data structures
    • 2.10.2. Functions
  • 2.11. Testing
• 3. Coalescing block structure
  • 3.1. Introduction
  • 3.2. History
  • 3.3. Definitions
  • 3.4. Requirements
  • 3.5. Interface
    • 3.5.1. External types
    • 3.5.2. External functions
  • 3.6. Alignment
  • 3.7. Implementation
    • 3.7.1. Size change callback protocol
    • 3.7.2. Splay tree
    • 3.7.3. Low memory behaviour
    • 3.7.4. The CBS block
  • 3.8. Testing
  • 3.9. Notes for future development
  • 3.10. Risks
  • 3.11. Proposed hybrid implementation
• 4. Checking
  • 4.1. Introduction
  • 4.2. History
  • 4.3. Implementation
• 5. Pool class interface
  • 5.1. Introduction
  • 5.2. Document history
  • 5.3. Architecture
  • 5.4. Methods
  • 5.5. Events
  • 5.6. Text
• 6. Collection framework
  • 6.1. Introduction
  • 6.2. History
  • 6.3. Overview
  • 6.4. Collection abstractions
    • 6.4.1. Colours, scanning and fixing
    • 6.4.2. Reference sets
  • 6.5. The tracer
    • 6.5.1. The condemn phase
    • 6.5.2. The grey mutator phase
    • 6.5.3. The flip phase
    • 6.5.4. The black mutator phase
    • 6.5.5. The reclaim phase
  • 6.6. Barriers
    • 6.6.1. Hardware barriers
    • 6.6.2. Software barriers
• 7. Configuration
  • 7.1. Introduction
  • 7.2. History
  • 7.3. Requirements
  • 7.4. Definitions
  • 7.5. Overview
  • 7.6. The build system
    • 7.6.1. Abstract Build Function
    • 7.6.2. File Structure
    • 7.6.3. Modules and Naming
    • 7.6.4. Build System Rationale
  • 7.7. Implementation
    • 7.7.1. Target Platform Detection
    • 7.7.2. Target varieties
  • 7.8. Source code configuration
    • 7.8.1. Configuration parameters
    • 7.8.2. Abstract and concrete module interfaces
    • 7.8.3. Configuring module implementations
  • 7.9. Procedures
  • 7.10. Notes
• 8. Finalization
  • 8.1. Overview
  • 8.2. History
  • 8.3. Requirements
  • 8.4. Architecture
    • 8.4.1. External interface
  • 8.5. Implementation
• 9. The generic fix function
• 10. Introduction
• 11. History
• 12. Architecture
• 13. Implementation
• 14. The lock module
  • 14.1. History
  • 14.2. Purpose
  • 14.3. Background
  • 14.4. Overview
  • 14.5. Detailed design
• 15. Debugging features for client objects
  • 15.1. Introduction
  • 15.2. History
  • 15.3. Overview
  • 15.4. Requirements
  • 15.5. Solution ideas
  • 15.6. Architecture
  • 15.7. Client interface
  • 15.8. Examples
  • 15.9. Implementation
• 16. Protocol inheritance
  • 16.1. Introduction
  • 16.2. History
  • 16.3. Purpose
  • 16.4. Requirements
  • 16.5. Overview
  • 16.6. Interface
    • 16.6.1. Class definition
    • 16.6.2. Single inheritance
    • 16.6.3. Specialization
    • 16.6.4. Extension
    • 16.6.5. Introspection
    • 16.6.6. Multiple inheritance
    • 16.6.7. Protocol guidelines
    • 16.6.8. Example
  • 16.7. Implementation
• 17. General MPS types
  • 17.1. Introduction
  • 17.2. Rationale
  • 17.3. Concrete types
  • 17.4. Abstract types
• 18. Software versions
  • 18.1. Introduction
  • 18.2. History
  • 18.3. Overview
• 19. Library version mechanism
  • 19.1. Introduction
  • 19.2. History
  • 19.3. Readership
  • 19.4. Source
  • 19.5. Overview
  • 19.6. Architecture
  • 19.7. Implementation