[armedbear-devel] Understanding JVM code

[Mark Evenson]

In working on the PROGV problems, I can't understand why the following simple case works with JVM.

For the forms (attached in progv.lisp):

  (defvar *a* "initial")

  (defun foo ()
    (progv '(*a*) '((symbol-value '*a*))
      (setf *a* "foo")
      (return-from foo 42)))

You get the following JVM code:

   0:	invokestatic	#27; //Method org/armedbear/lisp/LispThread.currentThread:()Lorg/armedbear/lisp/LispThread;
   3:	astore_1
   4:	getstatic	#31; //Field OBJSTR106:Lorg/armedbear/lisp/LispObject;
   7:	getstatic	#33; //Field OBJSTR107:Lorg/armedbear/lisp/LispObject;
   10:	aload_1
   11:	invokevirtual	#37; //Method org/armedbear/lisp/LispThread.markSpecialBindings:()Lorg/armedbear/lisp/SpecialBindingsMark;
   14:	astore_2
   15:	aload_1
   16:	invokestatic	#43; //Method org/armedbear/lisp/Lisp.progvBindVars:(Lorg/armedbear/lisp/LispObject;Lorg/armedbear/lisp/LispObject;Lorg/armedbear/lisp/LispThread;)V
   19:	aload_1
   20:	getstatic	#45; //Field SYM108_A:Lorg/armedbear/lisp/Symbol;
   23:	getstatic	#47; //Field STR109:Lorg/armedbear/lisp/SimpleString;
   26:	invokevirtual	#51; //Method org/armedbear/lisp/LispThread.setSpecialVariable:(Lorg/armedbear/lisp/Symbol;Lorg/armedbear/lisp/LispObject;)Lorg/armedbear/lisp/LispObject;
   29:	pop
   30:	getstatic	#53; //Field FIXNUM_42:Lorg/armedbear/lisp/LispInteger;
   33:	areturn
   34:	aload_1
   35:	aload_2
   36:	invokevirtual	#57; //Method org/armedbear/lisp/LispThread.resetSpecialBindings:(Lorg/armedbear/lisp/SpecialBindingsMark;)V
   39:	athrow
   40:	aload_1
   41:	aload_2
   42:	invokevirtual	#57; //Method org/armedbear/lisp/LispThread.resetSpecialBindings:(Lorg/armedbear/lisp/SpecialBindingsMark;)V
   45:	areturn
 
What I don't understand is how the *A* binding is restored at all.  But ABCL executes this code correctly, restoring *A* to the string "initial" after an execution of FOO.  But as you see in the code, the SETF is executed in line 26, then the return value is discarded via pop, then the return value is put on the stack in line 30, and then the method returns via ARETURN.  None of the exception handlers which invoke resetSpecialBindings at the end of the the code (lines 34-39, 40-45) are executed at all.  So how does the special variable get reset?  Is there something happening in the autoloaded that intercepts with a proxy that resets things?  

Searching for a reasonable JVM debugger that doesn't assume you are compiling from Java doesn't seem to turn up much.  Does anyone have a trick for following the JVM executing such code?

Very confused,
Mark

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