The X-Philes (2nd Revision)/The X-Philes Number 1 (1995).iso/xphiles/psion/spy.doc

Text File | 1993-07-07 | 9KB | 181 lines

Notes on Spy.app
================

The main display is a scrolling list of processes currently
running on the Series3.  The `Change processes' menu option
allows customisation of which processes are shown.  "System"
processes are simply ones whose names start with "Sys$", and
include:
    sys$shll - which the user sees as the System Screen
    sys$wsrv - the Window Server, which coordinates access to the
screen and keyboard
    sys$fsrv - the File Server, which coordinates access to the
filing systems
    sys$mang - the Manager, which keeps track of all resources
used by processes (so that, for example, they can be properly
tidied whenever processes exit)
    sys$ncp - the brains behind Remote Link (when it is running).
The Null process, sys$null, which performs the vital task of
switching the Series3 off following sufficient inactivity, is
omitted from the list displayed, for various technical reasons.

First letter matching works in the main window, so that eg
pressing 'C' enough times will position the highlight to the
Calculator process.
Arrows are drawn in the top right and bottom right corner,
Agenda-wise, whenever there are more processes beyond the visible
boundaries of the list.

The data displayed is updated every time Spy comes into
foreground, and also whenever the `Update' menu option is
selected.  By default, it is also updated regularly on a timer,
though this can be disabled by a menu option.  The `Refresh rate'
option governs how frequently updates take place, when the timer
is enabled.

There are in all twelve pieces of data that can be displayed for
each process, but only three of these can be seen at any one
time.  Use the `Change data' menu option to choose which.
Many of the data items can be meaningfully displayed either in
Hex or in Decimal.  Another menu option controls this.

Five of the twelve possible items of data concern the allocator
heap of the process.  Each process has its own heap, which can
vary in size according to the needs of the program.  Thus a Word
Processor editing a large document will typically have a larger
heap than a Word Processor editing a smaller document.
Each heap is divided into "alloced cells" and "free cells".  The
items "Cells allocated" and "Cells free" count these, and the
items "Bytes allocated" and "Bytes free" sum how many bytes
belong in each category.
This data was of great help in developing the built-in
applications (amongst others).  It is of course vital that an
application frees cells it no longer requires - otherwise these
cells go to what is called "alloc heaven".  Something to watch
for in particular is alloc heaven following an out-of-memory
failure.  Typically, a process such as launching a dialog
involves a number of different allocs; if any one of these fails,
all the allocs which have already succeeded must be undone.
System code provides mechanisms such as "automatic destruction"
and "automated clean-up" to help applications here, but
applications can use these incorrectly at times - hence the need
for real-time checking.
Most of this is of course irrelevant to Opl programs, which
standardly just work with static data and data on the stack,
rather than dynamically allocating memory as and when required.

Whenever a process starts, its stack is filled up with '0xFF's.
This makes it easy to see how much stack has been used, at any
one time.  Quality programs need to avoid having too large a
stack - the built-in applications default to a stack of 0xa00.
On the other hand, the operating system panics them ("exit 69") if
it ever discovers that their stack is less than 0x100.  This is
because whenever an interrupt occurs, it runs in the stack of the
current process.
The `Reset least stack' menu option simply refills the bottom of
the process's stack with '0xFF's (ie up to its present stack
pointer).

The "Segment size" of a process gives the size of its data
segment - which consists of the heap, static data private to the
application, the stack, and finally the so-called "reserved
statics" at the bottom end.  The quoted "Segment size" of an
application can sometimes give a misleading account of how much
memory it is actually using - since there are free cells as well
as alloced cells in the heap.  From time to time, the operating
system may try to compress these heaps, but it can only do this
by removing any free cells AT THE END OF THE HEAP.  Applications
should strive to avoid ending up with large free cells in the
middle of their heap - though this is a very difficult goal to
achieve.

As an experiment, I've just opened my personal database file.
Spy tells me the Database has a segment size of 0x2650, having 59
alloc cells totalling 0x6ee bytes.  Only 0x10e bytes in the heap
are free - from which you can deduce that the Database has a lot
of static data (around 0x1454).  At the same time, the `Memory'
option in the System Screen says the Database is using 9k - which
is close enough to the hex value of 0x2650.
Next, in the Database, I bring up the Print Setup dialog, and
then the Printer Model subdialog, and finally the Default Font
dialog inside that.  Spy now tells me that the Database has a
segment of 0x3720 bytes, in which there are 169 alloc cells
comprising 0x123a bytes.  Next I press Help twice in the
Database.  The alloc count has gone up to 179 cells, comprising
0x1428 bytes.  Next I cancel out of the five levels of dialogs.
The alloc count is down to 60, comprising 0x73e bytes; the
segment size is 0x3720, with the last free cell being 0x1126
bytes long.  After running the heap compressor, the segment size
dwindles back to 0x2700.
(On the face of things, there may seem to be a bug here - there is
one more alloc cell at the end than at the start.  These 0x50 bytes
are actually an instance of the "Printer manager" class, which system
code creates for an application whenever the Print Dialog suite is
entered (or when the application actually prints).  Try the whole
experiment again and you will not see any repetition.  This is just
the kind of analysis that Spy throws up.)

The heap compressor actually gets run whenever an application
makes an alloc request that cannot immediately be satisfied
within its own alloc heap; the operating system tries to grow the
heap of that process by shrinking the heaps of all the others.

Anyone following this whole experiment might now like to "Reset
the least stack" of the Database and then watch the Stack Pointer
and the Least Stack as the five dialogs are launched and then
cancelled again.  I make it
    Lst:  944 -> 466 -> 466 -> 466 -> 3df -> 3df -> ... 3de
    SP:   944 -> 822 -> 728 -> 62a -> 62a -> 62a -> ... 944
(all values in Hex), from which you can deduce that the Help
dialogs don't wind up the stack in the same way that the others
do.

Whenever Spy collects heap statistics for an application, it also
checks the heap integrity.  Any defect (caused for example by
writing beyond the end of an alloc cell, or freeing a cell that
was never alloced) results in an immediate alert.  Hopefully, you
will never see any such alert - unless you are developing your
own C programs.

The Process Priority gives the pecking order of the processes, as
regards gaining CPU from the multi-tasking scheduler.  Most
applications the user sees run at 0x80 when in foreground, and at
0x70 when in background.  This prevents computationally busy
background tasks from detracting from the performance of the
foreground task.  Spy momentarily ups its own priority to a
massive 0xc0 (the maximum allowed to non-OS processes) whenever
it collects heap statistics from other processes, to lessen the
chances of other processes manipulating their heaps at the same
time as Spy is walking through them.  Occasionally, Spy will find
that a heap is momentarily marked as "locked" when it tries to
survey it - this indicating that the Operating System is busy
doing something there - in which case the heap statistics will
all just be shown as 0 for that process.

The "Process ID" of a process is essentially the address of the
control block of the application in the Operating System data
space, although the top nibble reflects how many times that same
slot has been re-used since the last reset (it will therefore
always be zero for sys$mang, sys$fsrv, and sys$wsrv).  When
processes talk to each other, for example in conjunction with the
`Bring' menu option, they need to know each other's PID ("Process
ID").

The IO Semaphore count basically keeps track of how many outstanding
events a process has to respond to.  This will usually be -1 or zero,
but if you task to the System Screen and then straight back to Spy
again, you may see the count for sys$shll momentarily go as high as
three.

Well that's about it.  Incidentally, the code in Spy.app was
written at various times by at least seven different members of the
Software Development team at Psion.  An earlier version runs on the
MC range of computers.  The version I shipped was written using the
so-called HWIF library - ie just straight C, without any
object-oriented stuff.

Let me know of any bugs you notice.

DavidW, 28/3/92.