Re: LYNX-DEV Re: Lynx updates

[Klaus Weide]

On Tue, 12 Nov 1996, Drazen Kacar wrote:

> Wayne Buttles wrote:
> 
> > I have the same problem--maybe worse.  I have limited knowledge and time,
> > but high drive to see something work.  I end up either butchering
> > something to see it happen quickly, or giving up (ADD at its greatest ;-). 

In light of your, Drazen's, and my messages, I started thinking...
(which can be dangerous):

So why don't we exchange messages on these things then?
Something like a micro mailing list, for questions occurring while
hacking the Lynx code?  Questions like "what is this supposed to do",
"where is this used", or "what would happen if I changed this".

No MajorDomo needed for this, a simple sendmail alias should work fine,
if it's only there or four people we could even just CC.
Drazen, instead of offering web space, do you have a sendmail that
could do some small daemon work for us?

As a concrete start (gotta start somewhere), Wayne, Drazen, feel free
to mail this kind of questions to me.  In most cases I won't know the
answer and will tell you that.  But could be worth a try.  I will
bother you with similar questions in return.  Anybody else up for this?
Rob?  Fote?  Hiram?  all the others who have modified the code? 


> > Is there any program that could at least give me part of this?  Like what
> > is being called where and from where?  It seems like a logical concept,
> > but I have pretty big holes in my coding knowledge so I am not sure what
> > is possible.  
> 
> Try 'man cflow'. If that's not good enough, search the web for cxref.
> That's the package with the same functionality, only better :). I think that
> it became stable, but I don't have the URL. And you might find 'man ctags'
> useful, too.

I would have said "grep" :)
But, seriously, I haven't tried any of those (except grep..) but if they
just act on the source code there are probably a lot of things they
wouldn't find, especially in the Lynx code.  For example, how would
they be able to figure out that HTLoadFile() or HTLoadHTTP() are actually
invoked by *this* statement (in HTAccess.h):

    status= (*(p->load))(HTAnchor_physical(anchor),
                        anchor, format_out, sink);

or where all the HTStreamClass *_free, *_abort, *put_character,
*put_string, and *put_block "methods" may be called?  That's a serious
problem for trying to understand the code (it is the library
architecture's fault...),  other than spending time with a debugger
or word of mouth I know of no solutions.  (Well maybe on of Drazen's
fancy profilers can help...)
 
> > > I ran Lynx through Purify and Purify found some memory leaks, but I don't
> > > know where to patch the holes. 
> > >
> > 
> > One of my semi-working test cases for Lynx on DOS used LYLeaks.  I
> > didn't get a lot of play time with it, but it really looked like it
> > could pinpoint memory leaks pretty well.  Am I off the mark on this one?
> 
> Purify keeps track of every byte on heap and stack. And elsewhere :)
> It also keeps record of all pointers (don't ask me how). It works with
> object code, source is not needed, but if you don't compile the source
> with -g, you don't get info about statements that produce memory leaks.
> That's pretty logical, isn't it? It's really fun when it starts producing
> warnings and error messages about functions in shared libraries. :)
> Ncurses package was pretty bad until Erik "there's no conspiracy" Raymond
> purified it, I think.
> 
> The program is sometimes rather slow, but that's because of Motif. Purify is
> the best package of this kind I've seen so far, but it's... um... comercial.
> You can get trial version that will work for 30 days, though. No limits on
> functionality. And then there is Quantify. That's profiler. Another great
> thing. No, I don't work for the company which made those tools. I even
> forgot their name. Really. :)

Fote recently wrote the the LYleaks was a kind-of purify for all 
systems..  It certainly doesn't require Motif or even X, and it's free.
But I haven't tried it.

  Klaus

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