This is a low-level interface to allow changing the size of
the currently latest allocation in `AllocationCluster`; a client
aware of this capability can perform a real »in-place re-alloc«,
assuming the very specific usage constraints can be met.
`lib::Several<X>` will use this feature when attached to an
`AllocationCluster`; with this special setup, an previously
unknown number of non-copyable objects can be built without
wasting any storage, as long as the storage reserve in the
current extent of the `AllocationCluster` is sufficient.
...use some pointer arithmetic for this test to verify
some important cases of object placement empirically.
Note: there is possibly a very special problematic case
when ''over aligned objects'' are not placed in accordance
to their alignment requirements. Fixing this problem would
be non-trivial, and thus I have only left a note in #1204
...including the interesting cases where objects are relocated
and the element spread is changed. With the help of the checksum
feature built into the test-dummy objects, the properly balanced
invocation of constructors can be demonstrated
PS: for historical context...
Last week the "Big F**cking Rocket" successfully performed the
test flight 4; both booster and Starship made it back to the
water surface and performed a soft splash-down after decelerating
to speed zero. The Starship was even able to maintain control
in spite of quite some heat damage on the steering flaps.
Yes ... all techies around the world are thrilled...
- spread change now retains the nominal element reserve
- `capacity()` and `capReserve()` now exposed on the builder API
- factor out the handling check safety functions
- rewrite the `resize()` builder function to be more generic
__Test now covers__ example with trivial data type, which can
indeed be resized and allows to grow buffer on-the fly without
requiring any knowledge of the actual type (due to using `memmove`)
building on the preceding analysis, we can now demonstrate that
the container is initially able to grow, but looses this capability
after accepting one element of unknown subclass type...
`lib::Several` is designed to be highly adaptable, allowing for
several quite distinct usage styles. On the downside, this requires
to perform some checks at runtime only, since the ability to handle
some element depends on specific circumstances.
This is a notable difference to `std::vector`, which is simply not capable
of handling ''non-copyable'' types, even if given an up-front memory reservation.
The last test case provided with the previous changeset did not trigger
an exception, but closer investigation revealed that this is correct,
since in this specific situation the container can accept this object type,
thereby just loosing the ability to move-relocate further objects.
A slightly re-arranged test scenario can be used to demonstrate this fine point.
- the test-dummy objects need a `noexcept` move ctor
- **bug** here: need an explicit check to prevent other types
than the known element type from ''sneaking in''
The `SeveralBuilder` is very flexible with respect to added elements,
but it will investigate the provided type information and reject any
further build operation that can not be carried out safely.
...turns out that we must ensure to pass a plain "object" type
to the standard allocator framework (no const, no references).
Here, ''object in C++ terminology'' means a scalar or record type,
but no functor, no references and no void,
Consider what (not) to support.
Notably I decided ''not to support'' moving out of an iterator,
since doing so would contradict the fundamental assumptions of
the »Lumiera Forward Iterator« Concept.
Start verifying some variations of element placement,
still focussing on the simple cases
Parts of the decision logic for element handling was packaged
as separate »strategy« class — but this turned out to be neither
a real abstraction, nor configurable in any way. Thus it is better
to simplify the structure and turn these type predicates into simple
private member functions of the SeveralBuilder itself
Elements maintained within the storage should be placed such
as to comply with their alignment requirements; the element spacing
thus must be increased to be a multiple of the given type's alignment.
This solution works in most common cases, where the alignement is
not larger as the platform's bus width (typically 64bit); but for
''over-aligned types'' this scheme may still generate wrong object
start positions (a completely correct solution would require to
add a fixed offset to the beginning of the storage array and also
to capture the alignment requirements during population and to
re-check for each new type.
...and the nice thing is, the recently built `IterIndex` iteration wrapper
covers this functionality right away, simply because `lib::Several`
is a generic container with subscript operator.
...passes the simplest unit test
* create a Several<int>
* populate from `std::initializer_list`
* random-access to elements
''next step would be to implement iteration''
After some fruitless attempts, I settled for using std::function directly,
in order to establish a working baseline of this (tremendously complicated)
allocation logic. Storing a std::function in the ArrayBucket is certainly
wasteful (it costs 4 »slots« of memory), but has the upside that
it handles all those tricky corner cases magically; notably
the functor can be stored completely inline in the most relevant
case where the allocator is a monostate; moreover we bind a lambda,
which can be optimised very effectively, so that in the simplest case
there will be only the single indirection through the ''invoker''.
This **completes the code path for a simple usage cycle**
🠲 ''and hooray ... the test crashes with a double-free''
- ensure the ''deleter function'' is invoked
- care for proper ''deleter'' setup in case of exception while copying
- need to »lock-in« on one specific kind of ''destructor invocation scheme,''
since we do not keep track of individual concrete element types
Parts of this logic were first coded down in the `realloc` template method,
where it did not really belong; thus reintegrate similar logic one level above,
in the SeveralBuilder::adjustStorage(). Moreover, for performance reasons,
always start with an initial chunk, similar to what `std::vector` does...
since this is meant as a policy implementation, reduce it to the bare operation;
the actual container storage handling logic shall be implemented in the container
and based on those primitive and configurable base operations
...still fighting to get the design of the `AllocationPolicy`
settled to work well with `AllocationCluster` while also allowing
to handle data types which are (not) trivially copyable.
This changeset attempts to turn the logic round: now we capture
an ''move exclusion flag'' and otherwise allow the Policy to
decide on its own, based on the ''element type''
- verifies if new element can just fit in
- otherwise ensure the storage adjustments are basically possible
- throw exception in case the new element can not be accommodated
- else request possible storage adjustments
- and finally let the allocator place the new element
Draft skeleton of the logic for element creation.
This turns out to be a rather challenging piece of code,
since we have to rely on logical reasoning about properties
of the element types in order to decide if and how these
elements can be emplaced, including the possibility to
re-allocate and move existing data to a new location.
- if we know the exact element type, we can handle any
copyable or movable object
- however, if the container is filled with a mixture of types,
we can not re-allocate or grow dynamically, unless all data
is trivially copyable (and can thus be handled through memmove)
- moreover we must ensure the ability to invoke the proper destructor
In-depth analysis of storage management revealed a misconception
with respect to possible storage optimisations, requiring more
metadata fields to handle all corner cases correctly.
It seems prudent to avoid any but the most obvious optimisations
and wait for real-world usage for a better understanding of the
prevalent access patterns. However, in preparation for any future
optimisations, all access coordination and storage metadata is
now relocated into the `ArrayBucket`, and thus resides within the
managed allocation, allowing for localised layout optimisations.
To place this into context: the expected prevalent use case is
for the »Render Nodes Network«, which relies on `AllocationCluster`
for storage management; most nodes will have only a single predecessor
or successor, leading to a large number of lib::Several intsances
populated with a single data element. In such a scenario, it is
indeed rather wasteful to allocate four »slot« of metadata for
each container instance; even more so since most of this
metadata is not even required in such a scenario.
...which basically ''seems doable'' now, yet turns up several unsolved problems
- need a way to handle excess storage for the raw allocation
- generally should relocate all metadata into the ArrayBucket
- mismatch at various APIs; must re-think where to pass size explicitly
- unclear yet how and where to pass the actual element type to create
...turns out to be rather challenging, due to the far reaching requirements
* the default case (heap allocation) ''must work out-of-the box''
* optionally a C++ standard conformant `Allocator` can be adapted
* which works correct even in case this allocator is ''not a monostate''
* **essential requirement** is to pass an `AllocationCluster` reference directly
* need a ''generic extension point'' to adapt to similar elaborate custom schemes
__Note__: especially we want to create a direct collaboration between the allocation policy and the underlying allocator to allow support for a dedicate ''realloc operation''
- code spelled out as intended, according to generic scheme
- can now encode the »unmanaged« case directly as `null`-deleter,
because in all other cases a deleter function is mandatory now
- add default constructor to `ArrayBucket`, detailing the default spread
even while at first sight only a ''deleter instance'' is required,
it seems prudent to rearrange the code in accordance to the prospective
Allocator / Object Factory concept, and rather try to incorporate
the specifics of the memory layout into this generic view, thereby
abstracting the actual allocator away.
This can be achieved by using a standard-allocator for `std::byte`
as the base allocator and treat each individual element allocator
as a specialised cross-allocator (assuming that this cross adaptation
is actually trivial in almost all cases)
The fundamental decision is that we want to have a single generic front-end,
meaning that we must jump dynamically into a configured deleter function.
And on top of that comes the additional requirement that ''some allocators''
are in fact tied to a specific instance, while other allocators are monostate.
However, we can distinguish both by probing if the allocator can be default constructed,
and if a default constructed allocator is equivalent to the currently used alloctor instance.
If this test fails, we must indeed maintain a single allocator instance,
and (to avoid overengineering for this rather special use case) we will
place this allocator instance into heap memory then, with a self-cleanup mechanism
On the other hand, all monostate allocators can be handled through static trapolines.
- the basic decision is to implement ''realloc'' similar to `std::vector`
- however the situation is complicated by the desire to allow arbitrary element types
- ⟹ must build a strategy based on the properties of the target type
- the completely dynamic growth is only possibly for trivially-movable types
- can introduce a dedicated ''element type'' though, and store a trampolin handler
- create by forwarding allocator arguments to policy
- builder-Op to append from iterator
- decide to collapse the ArrayBucket class, since
access is going through unsafe pointer arithmetic anyway
- favour dynamic polymorphism
- use additional memory for management data alongside the element allocation
- encode a flag and a deleter pointer to enable ownership of the allocation
- inherit base container privately into builder, so the build ends with a slice
Some decisions
- use a single template with policy base
- population via separate builder class
- implemented similar to vector (start/end)
- but able to hold larger (subclass) objects
- basically works out-of-the-box now
- the hard wired fixed Extent size is a serious limitation
- however, this is not the intended primary use, rather complementary
...this is an important detail: quite commonly, a custom allocator
is actually implemented as monostate, to avoid bloating every client container
with a backlink pointer; by inheriting the `StdFactory` adapter from the
allocator, the empty-base optimisation can be exploited.
In the standard case thus LinkedElements is the same size as a single
pointer, which is already exploited at several places in the code base.
Notably `AllocationCluster` uses a »virtual overlay« to dress-up the
position pointer as `LinkedElements`, allowing to delegate most of the
administration and memory management to existing and verified code.
With this adjustments, `LinkedElements` pass the tests again
and the rework of `AllocationCluster` is considered complete.
This is the first validation of the new design:
the policy to take ownership can be reimplemented simply
by delegating to the adaptor for a C++ standard allocator
The following structure can be expected, after __switching to C++20__
* Concept **Allocator** deals with the bare memory allocation
* Concept **Factory** handles object creation and disposal by delegation
* Concept **Handle** is a ready-made functor for dependency-injection
Right now, an implementation of the ''prospective Factory Concept''
can be provided, by delegating through `std::allocator_traits` to a given
`std::allocator` or compatible object
By default, LinkedElements uses a policy OwningHeapAllocated;
while retaining this interface, this policy should be recast
to rely on a standard compliant allocator, with a default
fallback to `std::allocator<T>`
This way, a single policy would serve all the cases where
objects are actually owned and managed by `LinkedElements`,
and most special policies would be redundant.
This turns out to be quite tedious and technical however,
since the newer standard mandates to use std::allocator_traits
as front-end, and moreover the standard allocators are always
tied to one specific target type, while `LinkedElements` is
deliberately used to maintain a polymorphic sequence.
...what I've implemented yesterday is effectively the same functionality
as provided automatically by the C++ object system when using a virtual destructor.
Thus a much cleaner solution is to turn `Destructor` into a interface
and let C++ do all the hard work.
Verified in test: works as intended
This is the first draft, implementing the invocation explicitly
through a trampoline function. While it seems to work,
the formulation can probably be simplified....
These diagnostics helpers must rely on low-level trickery,
since the implementation strives at avoiding unnecessary storage overhead.
Since `AllocationCluster` is move-only (for good reasons) and `StorageManager`
can not be constructed independently, a »backdoor« is created by
forced cast, relying on the known memory layout
- rather accept hard-wired limits than making the implementation excessively generic
- by exploiting the layout, the administrative overhead can be reduced significantly
- the trick with the "virtual managment overlay" allows to hand-off most of the
clean-up work to C++ destructor invocation
- it is important to verify these low-level arrangements explicitly by unit-test
