[webkit-dev] WebCore/platform directory

[Morgan L]

Yeah, the d-pointer pattern definitely has its costs as well.  I think it makes sense to optimize particular platforms with #ifdefs.  The goal, I think, should be to make sure that things are extensible properly for platform ports w/o requiring each platform to go that #ifdef route.  For example, you could declare the "d" in an #else section if the MAC platform version were entirely implemented w/o use of d-pointer.

-- morgan

----- Original Message ----
From: Maciej Stachowiak <mjs at apple.com>
To: Morgan L <morganl.webkit at yahoo.com>
Cc:
 Sebastien Roret <sroret at gm.sand-labs.com>; webkit-dev at lists.webkit.org
Sent: Thursday, December 7, 2006 5:34:33 PM
Subject: Re: [webkit-dev] WebCore/platform directory


On Dec 7, 2006, at 5:26 PM, Morgan L wrote:

Virtual functions are more expensive than the "Cheshire Cat" pattern because they add code bloat to each call-site.  To call a virtual function the compiler must generate extra code to dereference the object's vtable, whereas with a d-pointer approach that cost exists only once at the site of the implementation.  Moreover, the d-pointer approach allows cross-platform code to be more easily shared between the ports.  The approach breaks down, however, when header files are heavily #ifdef'd as they are in much of WebCore today.  It seems to me that there is a happy
 middle ground to be had :-)



I agree that making the platform dir classes all pure virtual would be inappropriate. Many of these classes are used quite heavily and this would be a major performance hit. 


However, the d-pointer approach also has its costs, in extra dynamic memory allocations and extra indirection to access data members.


This is why we usually ifdef platform-specific data members.


However, we can re-examine the approach on a case-by-case basis, and only use platform-specific inline data members in cases where it really is performance critical. For classes where there are not that many instances created, using a d-pointer could certainly make things simpler.



Regards,
Maciej










 
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