[vlc-devel] commit: Asynchronous timer API ( R??mi Denis-Courmont )

[jpd at videolan.org]

On Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 03:00:10PM +0200, R??mi Denis-Courmont wrote:
> The layout of VLC threading structures is supposed to be opaque to source
> code, and OS-dependent. The only reason it's exposed in vlc_threads.h is so
> that we don't need a pair of dedicated malloc()/free() for each and every
> thread, mutex, variable, spin, key and timer.

Providing an accessor would take care of that.


> In the first case, the compiler can be clever enough to alias realdata to
> data. In the second case, it cannot. Hence, the stack consumption should be
> the same. That is not to mention that the calling convention might well put
> both parameters in registers.

None of that is guaranteed, nor knowable without exhaustive survey,
and no more than clever clean up after avoidable action. I don't see
significant difference in cache line use whether that deref happens
before or after the calling branch.


> You're not supposed to change the data across calls. I put the opaque data
> in the structure instead of giving it up to the system because neither
> POSIX nor Win32 timers are compatible with void(*)(void *). As such, one
> level of indirection is required. Again, this is an implementation detail.

And so is whether to pass a vlc_timer_t * to the function. If there's
nothing in there for the callee to look at, it shouldn't be there. If
there's merely nothing to touch, it should be const.