boost/libs/context/doc/rationale.qbk

[/
          Copyright Oliver Kowalke 2014.
 Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0.
    (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at
          http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt
]

[section:rationale Rationale]

[heading No inline-assembler]

Some newer compiler (for instance MSVC 10 for x86_64 and itanium) do not
support inline assembler.
[footnote [@http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4ks26t93.aspx MSDN article
'Inline Assembler']].
Inlined assembler generates code bloating which his not welcome on embedded
systems.


[heading fcontext_t]

__boost_context__ provides the low level API fcontext_t which is
implemented in assembler to provide context swapping operations.
fcontext_t is the part to port to new platforms.

[note Context switches do not preserve the signal mask on UNIX systems.]

__fcontext__ is an opaque pointer.



[section Other APIs ]

[heading setjmp()/longjmp()]

C99 defines `setjmp()`/`longjmp()` to provide non-local jumps but it does not
require that ['longjmp()] preserves the current stack frame. Therefore, jumping
into a function which was exited via a call to ['longjmp()] is undefined
[footnote ISO/IEC 9899:1999, 2005, 7.13.2.1:2].


[heading ucontext_t]

Since POSIX.1-2003 `ucontext_t` is deprecated and was removed in POSIX.1-2008!
The function signature of `makecontext()` is:

    void makecontext(ucontext_t *ucp, void (*func)(), int argc, ...);

The third argument of `makecontext()` specifies the number of integer arguments
that follow which will require function pointer cast if `func` will accept those
arguments which is undefined in C99
[footnote ISO/IEC 9899:1999, 2005, J.2].

The arguments in the var-arg list are required to be integers, passing pointers
in var-arg list is not guaranteed to work, especially it will fail for
architectures where pointers are larger than integers.

`ucontext_t` preserves signal mask between context switches which involves system
calls consuming a lot of CPU cycles (ucontext_t is slower by
perfomance_link[factor 13x] relative to `fcontext_t`).


[heading Windows fibers]

A drawback of Windows Fiber API is that `CreateFiber()` does not accept a
pointer to user allocated stack space preventing the reuse of stacks for other
context instances. Because the Windows Fiber API requires to call
`ConvertThreadToFiber()` if `SwitchFiber()` is called for a thread which has not
been converted to a fiber. For the same reason `ConvertFiberToThread()`
must be called after return from `SwitchFiber()` if the thread was forced to be
converted to a fiber before (which is inefficient).

        if ( ! is_a_fiber() )
        {
            ConvertThreadToFiber( 0);
            SwitchToFiber( ctx);
            ConvertFiberToThread();
        }

If the condition `_WIN32_WINNT >= _WIN32_WINNT_VISTA` is met function
`IsThreadAFiber()` is provided in order to detect if the current thread was
already converted. Unfortunately Windows XP + SP 2/3 defines
`_WIN32_WINNT >= _WIN32_WINNT_VISTA` without providing `IsThreadAFiber()`.

[endsect]


[section x86 and floating-point env]

[heading i386]

"The FpCsr and the MxCsr register must be saved and restored before any call or return
by any procedure that needs to modify them ..."
[footnote 'Calling Conventions', Agner Fog].


[heading x86_64]

[heading Windows]

MxCsr - "A callee that modifies any of the non-volatile fields within MxCsr must restore
them before returning to its caller. Furthermore, a caller that has modified any
of these fields must restore them to their standard values before invoking a callee ..."
[footnote [@http://http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yxty7t75.aspx MSDN article
'MxCsr']].

FpCsr - "A callee that modifies any of the fields within FpCsr must restore them before
returning to its caller. Furthermore, a caller that has modified any of these
fields must restore them to their standard values before invoking a callee ..."
[footnote [@http://http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms235300.aspx MSDN article
'FpCsr']].

"The MMX and floating-point stack registers (MM0-MM7/ST0-ST7) are preserved across
context switches. There is no explicit calling convention for these registers."
[footnote [@http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/a32tsf7t%28VS.80%29.aspx MSDN article
'Legacy Floating-Point Support']].

"The 64-bit Microsoft compiler does not use ST(0)-ST(7)/MM0-MM7".
[footnote 'Calling Conventions', Agner Fog].

"XMM6-XMM15 must be preserved"
[footnote [@http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9z1stfyw%28v=vs.100%29.aspx MSDN
article 'Register Usage']]


[heading SysV]

"The control bits of the MxCsr register are callee-saved (preserved across calls),
while the status bits are caller-saved (not preserved). The x87 status word register is
caller-saved, whereas the x87 control word (FpCsr) is callee-saved."
[footnote SysV ABI AMD64 Architecture Processor Supplement Draft Version 0.99.4, 3.2.1].

[endsect]


[endsect]