Re: brutcopy and gcopy_av

[Karim BELABAS <Karim.Belabas@math.u-psud.fr>]

On Thu, 7 Feb 2002, Ilya Zakharevich wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 07, 2002 at 01:14:33PM +0100, Karim BELABAS wrote:
> > What exactly do you need it for, that gclone() does not provide ?  [this will
> > help me decide the "final" form of the public interface...]
>
> Does gclone() move things from the heap to the stack?  Then probably
> gcopy_av() is not needed indeed.

In PARI technobabble, it's exactly the other way round:

stack = huge chunk of memory [parisize] where avma, bot, top & friends live.
Except when specifically mentionned in the docs (e.g gmodulo), PARI functions
return results which live here. gerepile* functions operate here.
"stack overflow" occurs here.

heap = linked list of "blocs", where "permanent" objects live: cached values
for pi, Euler constant, Bernoulli numbers, log(2), GP history (%1, etc),
values of GP variables. "heap overflow" occurs as "no enough memory" messages
[failed malloc]


gclone(x) = create a (complete) copy of x, allocated (as a single "bloc") in
the heap

gcopy(x)  = create a copy of x, allocated in the stack. Some subobjects of x
not living in the heap may only copied as pointers (modulus of t_INTMOD,
t_POLMOD object)

forcecopy(x) = as above, but complete copy guaranteed

gunclone(x)  = destroy a clone [assumes x = gclone(y)], freeing the
corresponding "bloc".

Former brutcopy/current gcopy_av: copy an object to a preallocated buffer
( whose size should have been determined by taille() ). There's a silly
technical difference between the two [ linked to the fact that a bloc is not
a decent struct, but is operated upon by assembler-like macros, x[-1], x[-2],
etc. ], but I'm trying to make the reason for it disappear, so I won't bother
you with that, unless you ask for it :-)

Hope this helps,

    Karim.
-- 
Karim Belabas                    Tel: (+33) (0)1 69 15 57 48
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Université Paris-Sud             Email: Karim.Belabas@math.u-psud.fr
F-91405 Orsay (France)           http://www.math.u-psud.fr/~belabas
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