Converting blocks to methods

Hi, one idea could be to just build a tiny compiledmethod that calls the  
Block.
e.g., you can store the block in the literalframe of the that method  
and then
call value:... on it with the correct arguments. As it's just a  
"pushLiteral, send value",
with #value being a primitive method, this should be not too slow.

Especially it preserves the semantics of the block, converting blocks  
into non-blocks
is normally no good idea as you need to explain people that they are  
not allowed
to use outer references...

So I would keep the block. Blocks are cool.

This would be fairly easy to do with IRBuilder, as you can just push  
the block as a
literal, generate a method that calls this then with the correct  
value:... this
would look like this:

addMethod: selector with: aBlock
        |  irBuilder args |

        args := (aBlock tempNames collect: #asSymbol) asArray.
       
        irBuilder := IRBuilder new
                numRargs: 1 + aBlock numArgs;
                addTemps: #(self);
                addTemps: args;
                pushLiteral: aBlock. "push the block as a literal"
               
        args do: [:each |  "maybe this needs to be done in reverse?"
                irBuilder pushTemp: each
        ].
               
        irBuilder send: aBlock valueSelector.
        irBuilder returnTop.
        self basicAddSelector: selector withMethod: irBuilder ir compiledMethod
       

(this needs the latest NewCompiler and the attached changeset).






        Marcus
--
Marcus Denker  --  [hidden email]
http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~denker