Re: API clean up patch

[Andrew Haley]

Archie Cobbs writes:
 > I'd like to throw this patch out for comments; it fixes some of the
 > inconsistencies in our VM interface. The basic problem is that the VM
 > interface as a "stock" Classpath defines it is almost guaranteed to
 > require changes before a VM can actually work properly.
 > 
 > As a small example, consider this "stock" implementation of
 > VMThrowable.fillInStackTrace():
 > 
 >    static VMThrowable fillInStackTrace(Throwable t)
 >    {
 >      return null;
 >    }
 > 
 > Who wants a VM that's incapable of generating stack traces??
 > 
 > Of course, many VM implementors will want to modify the "stock" Classpath
 > API, which is fine.. I'd just like to not *require* them to do so if
 > they'd prefer to use Classpath as-is.

You don't explain why you want this.  As I understand it, VMblah.java
files are provided as templates for code that is target-specific.  Why
is that a bad thing?

Why do you assume that VMThread.countStackFrames(),
VMThrowable.fillInStackTrace(), and VMThrowable.getStackTrace() will
be native?

Andrew.