[fpc-devel] threadlocalvar unLOCKed variables

[A. Bouchez]

I made a proposal in http://wiki.freepascal.org/Modernised_Pascal

20) threadlocalvar unLOCKed variables i.e. strings and dynamic arrays local to the current thread: reference-counted without the asm LOCK, "copy and write" only with other threadlocalvar, thread-local heap (without any asm LOCK either).
It will increase the speed a lot in multi-core architectures, which don't like asm LOCK (freezes all cores for safe multi-thread). 
Note: this LOCK is implemented in the RTL in inclocked() and declocked() processor-specific functions.

function TServer.ComputePage: string;
threadlocalvar
  tmp: string; // differs from var tmp: string
  i: integer;  // i is defined as threadlocalvar, but is the same as normal var
begin
  for i := 0 to high(ListStr) do // ListStr[] is a dynamic array 
    tmp := tmp+ListStr[i]+#13#10; // very fast computation, without LOCK
  result := tmp; // copy from local heap to global heap
end;

To implement this at the compiler and RTL level, we could use reference count < -2 for these variables (-1=const, -2=ref 0, -3=ref 1..). For example:

Procedure fpc_AnsiStr_Incr_Ref (S : Pointer); [Public,Alias:'FPC_ANSISTR_INCR_REF'];  compilerproc; {$IFNDEF VER2_0} Inline; {$ENDIF}
Begin
  If S<>Nil then
    If PAnsiRec(S-FirstOff)^.Ref<0 then begin
      If PAnsiRec(S-FirstOff)^.Ref<-1 then  // -1 for const
        dec(PAnsiRec(S-FirstOff)^.Ref); // threadlocalvar fast reference count
    end else
      inclocked(PAnsiRec(S-FirstOff)^.Ref); // threadsafe reference count
end;

And a local threadheap should be implemented for such threadlocalvar, with threadlocalgetmem() and such functions.

Another possibility should be do add a "threadlocal" attribute for types, to be used for local variables and properties: 

TServer = class
public
  ListStr: threadlocal array of string;
 ...
 
 In this case, the method above should begin with:

function TServer.ComputePage: string;
var
  tmp: threadlocal string; // differs from var tmp: string
....

But this syntax sound a bit not "pascalish", whereas the threadlocalvar does (it sounds like the treadvar feature) ... another idea?