Final methods and the BC-ABI

Mon Nov 10 04:56:00 GMT 2003

Bryce McKinlay wrote:
> Currently, the compiler does not generate vtable entries at all for 
> final methods under the "current" ABI. This poses a problem in that 
> --indirect-dispatch code will not be able to inter-operate with "current 
> ABI" code. So, I propose that the compiler be changed to generate vtable 
> entries for all final methods.

Is this the only (or primary) binary interoperability between the two 
ABIs? If the long-term migrataion path is towards the binary compatible 
ABI as the default, then I don't see why interoperability matters. In 
that future I can imagine you'd only use the current ABI on embedded 
systems without shared libraries. On such systems wouldn't you want to 
avoid generating useless vtable entries?
But I won't make any strong objections to the change you're proposing. 
You have more of the big picture at this point than I have.
-- 
	--Per Bothner
per@bothner.com http://per.bothner.com/