Question

I’ve been mucking around with Allen Bauer’s code for a generic multicast event dispatcher (see his blog posts about it here).

He gives just enough code to make me want to use it, and unfortunately he hasn’t posted the full source. I had a bash at getting it to work, but my assembler skills are non-existent.

My problem is the InternalSetDispatcher method. The naive approach is to use the same assembler as for the other InternalXXX methods:

procedure InternalSetDispatcher;
begin
   XCHG  EAX,[ESP]
   POP   EAX
   POP   EBP
   JMP   SetEventDispatcher
end;

But this is used for procedures with one const parameter, like this:

procedure Add(const AMethod: T); overload;

And SetDispatcher has two parameters, one a var:

procedure SetEventDispatcher(var ADispatcher: T; ATypeData: PTypeData);

So, I assume that the stack would get corrupted. I know what the code is doing (cleaning up the stack frame from the call to InternalSetDispatcher by popping the hidden reference to self and I assume the return address), but I just can’t figure out that little bit of assembler to get the whole thing going.

EDIT: Just to clarify, what I am looking for is the assembler that I could use to get the InternalSetDispatcher method to work, ie, the assembler to cleanup the stack of a procedure with two parameters, one a var.

EDIT2: I’ve amended the question a little, thank you to Mason for his answers so far. I should mention that the code above does not work, and when SetEventDispatcher returns, an AV is raised.

Answer 1

The answer, after I have done a lot of running around on the web, is that the assembler assumes that a stack frame is present when calling in to InternalSetDispatcher.

It seems that a stack frame was not being generated for the call to InternalSetDispatcher.

So, the fix is as easy as turning on stack frames with the {$stackframes on} compiler directive and rebuilding.

Thanks Mason for your help in getting me to this answer. 🙂

---

Edit 2012-08-08: If you’re keen on using this, you might want to check out the implementation in the Delphi Sping Framework. I haven’t tested it, but it looks like it handles different calling conventions better than this code.

---

Edit: As requested, my interpretation of Alan’s code is below. On top of needing stack frames turned on, I also needed to have optimization turned on at the project level for this to work:

unit MulticastEvent;

interface

uses
  Classes, SysUtils, Generics.Collections, ObjAuto, TypInfo;

type

  // you MUST also have optimization turned on in your project options for this
  // to work! Not sure why.
  {$stackframes on}
  {$ifopt O-}
    {$message Fatal 'optimisation _must_ be turned on for this unit to work!'}
  {$endif}
  TMulticastEvent = class
  strict protected
    type TEvent = procedure of object;
  strict private
    FHandlers: TList<TMethod>;
    FInternalDispatcher: TMethod;

    procedure InternalInvoke(Params: PParameters; StackSize: Integer);
    procedure SetDispatcher(var AMethod: TMethod; ATypeData: PTypeData);
    procedure Add(const AMethod: TEvent); overload;
    procedure Remove(const AMethod: TEvent); overload;
    function IndexOf(const AMethod: TEvent): Integer; overload;
  protected
    procedure InternalAdd;
    procedure InternalRemove;
    procedure InternalIndexOf;
    procedure InternalSetDispatcher;

  public
    constructor Create;
    destructor Destroy; override;

  end;

  TMulticastEvent<T> = class(TMulticastEvent)
  strict private
    FInvoke: T;
    procedure SetEventDispatcher(var ADispatcher: T; ATypeData: PTypeData);
  public
    constructor Create;
    procedure Add(const AMethod: T); overload;
    procedure Remove(const AMethod: T); overload;
    function IndexOf(const AMethod: T): Integer; overload;

    property Invoke: T read FInvoke;
  end;

implementation

{ TMulticastEvent }

procedure TMulticastEvent.Add(const AMethod: TEvent);
begin
  FHandlers.Add(TMethod(AMethod))
end;

constructor TMulticastEvent.Create;
begin
  inherited;
  FHandlers := TList<TMethod>.Create;
end;

destructor TMulticastEvent.Destroy;
begin
  ReleaseMethodPointer(FInternalDispatcher);
  FreeAndNil(FHandlers);
  inherited;
end;

function TMulticastEvent.IndexOf(const AMethod: TEvent): Integer;
begin
  result := FHandlers.IndexOf(TMethod(AMethod));
end;

procedure TMulticastEvent.InternalAdd;
asm
  XCHG  EAX,[ESP]
  POP   EAX
  POP   EBP
  JMP   Add
end;

procedure TMulticastEvent.InternalIndexOf;
asm
  XCHG  EAX,[ESP]
  POP   EAX
  POP   EBP
  JMP   IndexOf
end;

procedure TMulticastEvent.InternalInvoke(Params: PParameters; StackSize: Integer);
var
  LMethod: TMethod;
begin
  for LMethod in FHandlers do
  begin
    // Check to see if there is anything on the stack.
    if StackSize > 0 then
      asm
        // if there are items on the stack, allocate the space there and
        // move that data over.
        MOV ECX,StackSize
        SUB ESP,ECX
        MOV EDX,ESP
        MOV EAX,Params
        LEA EAX,[EAX].TParameters.Stack[8]
        CALL System.Move
      end;
    asm
      // Now we need to load up the registers. EDX and ECX may have some data
      // so load them on up.
      MOV EAX,Params
      MOV EDX,[EAX].TParameters.Registers.DWORD[0]
      MOV ECX,[EAX].TParameters.Registers.DWORD[4]
      // EAX is always "Self" and it changes on a per method pointer instance, so
      // grab it out of the method data.
      MOV EAX,LMethod.Data
      // Now we call the method. This depends on the fact that the called method
      // will clean up the stack if we did any manipulations above.
      CALL LMethod.Code
    end;
  end;
end;

procedure TMulticastEvent.InternalRemove;
asm
  XCHG  EAX,[ESP]
  POP   EAX
  POP   EBP
  JMP   Remove
end;

procedure TMulticastEvent.InternalSetDispatcher;
asm
  XCHG  EAX,[ESP]
  POP   EAX
  POP   EBP
  JMP   SetDispatcher;
end;

procedure TMulticastEvent.Remove(const AMethod: TEvent);
begin
  FHandlers.Remove(TMethod(AMethod));
end;

procedure TMulticastEvent.SetDispatcher(var AMethod: TMethod;
  ATypeData: PTypeData);
begin
  if Assigned(FInternalDispatcher.Code) and Assigned(FInternalDispatcher.Data) then
    ReleaseMethodPointer(FInternalDispatcher);
  FInternalDispatcher := CreateMethodPointer(InternalInvoke, ATypeData);
  AMethod := FInternalDispatcher;
end;

{ TMulticastEvent<T> }

procedure TMulticastEvent<T>.Add(const AMethod: T);
begin
  InternalAdd;
end;

constructor TMulticastEvent<T>.Create;
var
  MethInfo: PTypeInfo;
  TypeData: PTypeData;
begin
  MethInfo := TypeInfo(T);
  TypeData := GetTypeData(MethInfo);
  inherited Create;
  Assert(MethInfo.Kind = tkMethod, 'T must be a method pointer type');
  SetEventDispatcher(FInvoke, TypeData);
end;

function TMulticastEvent<T>.IndexOf(const AMethod: T): Integer;
begin
  InternalIndexOf;
end;

procedure TMulticastEvent<T>.Remove(const AMethod: T);
begin
  InternalRemove;
end;

procedure TMulticastEvent<T>.SetEventDispatcher(var ADispatcher: T;
  ATypeData: PTypeData);
begin
  InternalSetDispatcher;
end;

end.