[plt-scheme] mzc, modules & background jobs

From: Bill Richter (richter at math.northwestern.edu)
Date: Wed Apr 16 22:21:54 EDT 2003

Succumbing to the speed bug, I made my Scheme code mzscheme-compliant,
and put 3 files into modules and compiled native code with mzc.  I had
trouble reading help-desk, and might be doing various things wrong.

Mainly I'm having trouble running background jobs (on a Linux box).

I have a 1-line file `run-mzc-script' whose 1 line is:

(require "create-mzc-wfile.scm")

create-mzc-wfile.scm, compiled to native code, writes output to a file
`wfile-tslex-out' by (fprintf port ...). I ran it successfully as a
foreground job; here's the xterm window output:

   (kepler)cur> mzscheme -r run-mzc-script  
   "wfile-tslex-out existed, now removing"



   [1]+  Terminated              mzscheme -r run-mzc-script
   (kepler)cur> more wfile-tslex-out 

    time = 1050542622
   (s = 16)time = 1050543548
   (s = 17)time = 1050543719
   (s = 18)time = 1050543719
   
I'm using current-seconds to time the job, which took 

(- 1050543719 1050542622) => 1097 seconds = 18 minutes


But I just ran it as a background job, and only got the 1st 2 lines of
output when the job exited:

   (kepler)cur> more wfile-tslex-out 

   time = 1050543986
   (s = 16)time = 1050544911
   (s = 17)

So 18 minutes for 3 calculations, s = 16, 17, 18, but 15.4 minutes for
the 1st calculation s = 16.

By background job, I mean the following.  In the xterm window I type 

mzscheme -r run-mzc-script  &

and then I kill the xterm window by C-d and even by clicking on the
"x" box to destroy the window.  Clearly the job continued to run after
I killed the window.  But I only got the first (s = 16) calculation.

My theory is that my background job gets messed up by writing to a
file by (fprintf port ...).     Instead of boring you with my whole
code, let's just look at the output:


   time = 1050543986
   (s = 16)time = 1050544911
   (s = 17)

The program performs almost no calculation before writing

   time = 1050543986
   (s = 16)

but then it has to do a lot of calculating to print the 2nd time.  But
once that happens, the line (s = 17) requires little calculation.  But
then my program has to do the calculation for (s = 17), and that's
where the hasty exit happened.

There's a lot I don't understand yet.  I'm assuming that `require'
using the compiled version of the files, but I don't actually know
that.  I found various hints in the direction.  



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