diff options
author | Deepanshu Gupta <deepanshu@google.com> | 2014-04-08 16:16:43 -0700 |
---|---|---|
committer | Deepanshu Gupta <deepanshu@google.com> | 2014-07-21 17:37:20 -0700 |
commit | c54100d449e30919db4879d52ee2cc25942b44d5 (patch) | |
tree | b7200e5f029aceb51ff22581411f6760599a8b14 /tools | |
parent | 643fa8d1ecf5d2a485b7b30d43a47d090b5e3dcc (diff) | |
download | frameworks_base-c54100d449e30919db4879d52ee2cc25942b44d5.zip frameworks_base-c54100d449e30919db4879d52ee2cc25942b44d5.tar.gz frameworks_base-c54100d449e30919db4879d52ee2cc25942b44d5.tar.bz2 |
Update layoutlib create README [DO NOT MERGE]
Update the doc to reflect the current state of the tool and use a
consistent 100 char column limit.
Change-Id: I64fb58cc46abbc2f3759cb1f99d42b5090c1409f
(cherry picked from commit 88585f404cb493129847e4487b628062674a4ede)
Diffstat (limited to 'tools')
-rw-r--r-- | tools/layoutlib/create/README.txt | 266 |
1 files changed, 128 insertions, 138 deletions
diff --git a/tools/layoutlib/create/README.txt b/tools/layoutlib/create/README.txt index ef2b185..6e0a300 100644 --- a/tools/layoutlib/create/README.txt +++ b/tools/layoutlib/create/README.txt @@ -4,46 +4,45 @@ - Description - --------------- -Layoutlib_create generates a JAR library used by the Eclipse graphical layout editor -to perform layout. +Layoutlib_create generates a JAR library used by the Eclipse graphical layout editor to perform +layout. - Usage - --------- - ./layoutlib_create path/to/android.jar destination.jar + ./layoutlib_create destination.jar path/to/android1.jar path/to/android2.jar - Design Overview - ------------------- -Layoutlib_create uses the "android.jar" containing all the Java code used by Android -as generated by the Android build, right before the classes are converted to a DEX format. +Layoutlib_create uses a few jars from the framework containing the Java code used by Android as +generated by the Android build, right before the classes are converted to a DEX format. -The Android JAR can't be used directly in Eclipse: -- it contains references to native code (which we want to avoid in Eclipse), -- some classes need to be overridden, for example all the drawing code that is - replaced by Java 2D calls in Eclipse. -- some of the classes that need to be changed are final and/or we need access - to their private internal state. +These jars can't be used directly in Eclipse as: +- they contains references to native code (which we want to avoid in Eclipse), +- some classes need to be overridden, for example all the drawing code that is replaced by Java 2D + calls in Eclipse. +- some of the classes that need to be changed are final and/or we need access to their private + internal state. Consequently this tool: - parses the input JAR, - modifies some of the classes directly using some bytecode manipulation, - filters some packages and removes those we don't want in the output JAR, - injects some new classes, -- generates a modified JAR file that is suitable for the Android plugin - for Eclipse to perform rendering. +- generates a modified JAR file that is suitable for the Android plugin for Eclipse to perform + rendering. The ASM library is used to do the bytecode modification using its visitor pattern API. -The layoutlib_create is *NOT* generic. There is no configuration file. Instead all the -configuration is done in the main() method and the CreateInfo structure is expected to -change with the Android platform as new classes are added, changed or removed. +The layoutlib_create is *NOT* generic. There is no configuration file. Instead all the configuration +is done in the main() method and the CreateInfo structure is expected to change with the Android +platform as new classes are added, changed or removed. -The resulting JAR is used by layoutlib_bridge (a.k.a. "the bridge"), also part of the -platform, that provides all the necessary missing implementation for rendering graphics -in Eclipse. +The resulting JAR is used by layoutlib_bridge (a.k.a. "the bridge"), also part of the platform, that +provides all the necessary missing implementation for rendering graphics in Eclipse. @@ -58,97 +57,96 @@ The tool works in two phases: - Analyzer ---------- -The goal of the analyzer is to create a graph of all the classes from the input JAR -with their dependencies and then only keep the ones we want. +The goal of the analyzer is to create a graph of all the classes from the input JAR with their +dependencies and then only keep the ones we want. -To do that, the analyzer is created with a list of base classes to keep -- everything -that derives from these is kept. Currently the one such class is android.view.View: -since we want to render layouts, anything that is sort of a view needs to be kept. +To do that, the analyzer is created with a list of base classes to keep -- everything that derives +from these is kept. Currently the one such class is android.view.View: since we want to render +layouts, anything that is sort of a view needs to be kept. -The analyzer is also given a list of class names to keep in the output. -This is done using shell-like glob patterns that filter on the fully-qualified -class names, for example "android.*.R**" ("*" does not matches dots whilst "**" does, -and "." and "$" are interpreted as-is). -In practice we almost but not quite request the inclusion of full packages. +The analyzer is also given a list of class names to keep in the output. This is done using +shell-like glob patterns that filter on the fully-qualified class names, for example "android.*.R**" +("*" does not matches dots whilst "**" does, and "." and "$" are interpreted as-is). In practice we +almost but not quite request the inclusion of full packages. -The analyzer is also given a list of classes to exclude. A fake implementation of these -classes is injected by the Generator. +The analyzer is also given a list of classes to exclude. A fake implementation of these classes is +injected by the Generator. -With this information, the analyzer parses the input zip to find all the classes. -All classes deriving from the requested bases classes are kept. -All classes which name matched the glob pattern are kept. -The analysis then finds all the dependencies of the classes that are to be kept -using an ASM visitor on the class, the field types, the method types and annotations types. -Classes that belong to the current JRE are excluded. +With this information, the analyzer parses the input zip to find all the classes. All classes +deriving from the requested bases classes are kept. All classes whose name match the glob pattern +are kept. The analysis then finds all the dependencies of the classes that are to be kept using an +ASM visitor on the class, the field types, the method types and annotations types. Classes that +belong to the current JRE are excluded. -The output of the analyzer is a set of ASM ClassReader instances which are then -fed to the generator. +The output of the analyzer is a set of ASM ClassReader instances which are then fed to the +generator. - Generator ----------- -The generator is constructed from a CreateInfo struct that acts as a config file -and lists: -- the classes to inject in the output JAR -- these classes are directly implemented - in layoutlib_create and will be used to interface with the renderer in Eclipse. +The generator is constructed from a CreateInfo struct that acts as a config file and lists: +- the classes to inject in the output JAR -- these classes are directly implemented in + layoutlib_create and will be used to interface with the renderer in Eclipse. - specific methods to override (see method stubs details below). - specific methods for which to delegate calls. - specific methods to remove based on their return type. - specific classes to rename. - specific classes to refactor. -Each of these are specific strategies we use to be able to modify the Android code -to fit within the Eclipse renderer. These strategies are explained beow. +Each of these are specific strategies we use to be able to modify the Android code to fit within the +Eclipse renderer. These strategies are explained beow. -The core method of the generator is transform(): it takes an input ASM ClassReader -and modifies it to produce a byte array suitable for the final JAR file. +The core method of the generator is transform(): it takes an input ASM ClassReader and modifies it +to produce a byte array suitable for the final JAR file. The first step of the transformation is to implement the method delegates. -The TransformClassAdapter is then used to process the potentially renamed class. -All protected or private classes are market as public. -All classes are made non-final. -Interfaces are left as-is. +The TransformClassAdapter is then used to process the potentially renamed class. All protected or +private classes are market as public. All classes are made non-final. Interfaces are left as-is. -If a method has a return type that must be erased, the whole method is skipped. -Methods are also changed from protected/private to public. -The code of the methods is then kept as-is, except for native methods which are -replaced by a stub. Methods that are to be overridden are also replaced by a stub. +If a method has a return type that must be erased, the whole method is skipped. Methods are also +changed from protected/private to public. The code of the methods is then kept as-is, except for +native methods which are replaced by a stub. Methods that are to be overridden are also replaced by +a stub. Finally fields are also visited and changed from protected/private to public. -The next step of the transformation is changing the name of the class in case -we requested the class to be renamed. This uses the RenameClassAdapter to also rename -all inner classes and references in methods and types. Note that other classes are -not transformed and keep referencing the original name. - -The class is then fed to RefactorClassAdapter which is like RenameClassAdapter but -updates the references in all classes. This is used to update the references of classes -in the java package that were added in the Dalvik VM but are not a part of the standard -JVM. The existing classes are modified to update all references to these non-standard -classes. An alternate implementation of these (com.android.tools.layoutlib.java.*) is -injected. - -The ClassAdapters are chained together to achieve the desired output. (Look at section -2.2.7 Transformation chains in the asm user guide, link in the References.) The order of -execution of these is: +The next step of the transformation is changing the name of the class in case we requested the class +to be renamed. This uses the RenameClassAdapter to also rename all inner classes and references in +methods and types. Note that other classes are not transformed and keep referencing the original +name. + +The class is then fed to RefactorClassAdapter which is like RenameClassAdapter but updates the +references in all classes. This is used to update the references of classes in the java package that +were added in the Dalvik VM but are not a part of the standard JVM. The existing classes are +modified to update all references to these non-standard classes. An alternate implementation of +these (com.android.tools.layoutlib.java.*) is injected. + +RenameClassAdapter and RefactorClassAdapter both inherit from AbstractClassAdapter which changes the +class version (version of the JDK used to compile the class) to 50 (corresponding to Java 6), if the +class was originally compiled with Java 7 (version 51). This is because we don't currently generate +the StackMapTable correctly and Java 7 VM enforces that classes with version greater than 51 have +valid StackMapTable. As a side benefit of this, we can continue to support Java 6 because Java 7 on +Mac has horrible font rendering support. + +The ClassAdapters are chained together to achieve the desired output. (Look at section 2.2.7 +Transformation chains in the asm user guide, link in the References.) The order of execution of +these is: ClassReader -> [DelegateClassAdapter] -> TransformClassAdapter -> [RenameClassAdapter] -> RefactorClassAdapter -> ClassWriter - Method stubs -------------- -As indicated above, all native and overridden methods are replaced by a stub. -We don't have the code to replace with in layoutlib_create. -Instead the StubMethodAdapter replaces the code of the method by a call to -OverrideMethod.invokeX(). When using the final JAR, the bridge can register +As indicated above, all native and overridden methods are replaced by a stub. We don't have the +code to replace with in layoutlib_create. Instead the StubMethodAdapter replaces the code of the +method by a call to OverrideMethod.invokeX(). When using the final JAR, the bridge can register listeners from these overridden method calls based on the method signatures. -The listeners are currently pretty basic: we only pass the signature of the -method being called, its caller object and a flag indicating whether the -method was native. We do not currently provide the parameters. The listener -can however specify the return value of the overridden method. +The listeners are currently pretty basic: we only pass the signature of the method being called, its +caller object and a flag indicating whether the method was native. We do not currently provide the +parameters. The listener can however specify the return value of the overridden method. This strategy is now obsolete and replaced by the method delegates. @@ -156,97 +154,89 @@ This strategy is now obsolete and replaced by the method delegates. - Strategies ------------ -We currently have 6 strategies to deal with overriding the rendering code -and make it run in Eclipse. Most of these strategies are implemented hand-in-hand -by the bridge (which runs in Eclipse) and the generator. +We currently have 6 strategies to deal with overriding the rendering code and make it run in +Eclipse. Most of these strategies are implemented hand-in-hand by the bridge (which runs in Eclipse) +and the generator. 1- Class Injection This is the easiest: we currently inject the following classes: -- OverrideMethod and its associated MethodListener and MethodAdapter are used - to intercept calls to some specific methods that are stubbed out and change - their return value. -- CreateInfo class, which configured the generator. Not used yet, but could - in theory help us track what the generator changed. -- AutoCloseable and Objects are part of Java 7. To enable us to still run on Java 6, new - classes are injected. The implementation for these classes has been taken from - Android's libcore (platform/libcore/luni/src/main/java/java/...). -- Charsets, IntegralToString and UnsafeByteSequence are not part of the standard JAVA VM. - They are added to the Dalvik VM for performance reasons. An implementation that is very - close to the original (which is at platform/libcore/luni/src/main/java/...) is injected. - Since these classees were in part of the java package, where we can't inject classes, - all references to these have been updated (See strategy 4- Refactoring Classes). +- OverrideMethod and its associated MethodListener and MethodAdapter are used to intercept calls to + some specific methods that are stubbed out and change their return value. +- CreateInfo class, which configured the generator. Not used yet, but could in theory help us track + what the generator changed. +- AutoCloseable and Objects are part of Java 7. To enable us to still run on Java 6, new classes are + injected. The implementation for these classes has been taken from Android's libcore + (platform/libcore/luni/src/main/java/java/...). +- Charsets, IntegralToString and UnsafeByteSequence are not part of the standard JAVA VM. They are + added to the Dalvik VM for performance reasons. An implementation that is very close to the + original (which is at platform/libcore/luni/src/main/java/...) is injected. Since these classees + were in part of the java package, where we can't inject classes, all references to these have been + updated (See strategy 4- Refactoring Classes). 2- Overriding methods -As explained earlier, the creator doesn't have any replacement code for -methods to override. Instead it removes the original code and replaces it -by a call to a specific OveriddeMethod.invokeX(). The bridge then registers -a listener on the method signature and can provide an implementation. +As explained earlier, the creator doesn't have any replacement code for methods to override. Instead +it removes the original code and replaces it by a call to a specific OveriddeMethod.invokeX(). The +bridge then registers a listener on the method signature and can provide an implementation. -This strategy is now obsolete and replaced by the method delegates. -See strategy 5 below. +This strategy is now obsolete and replaced by the method delegates (See strategy 6- Method +Delegates). 3- Renaming classes -This simply changes the name of a class in its definition, as well as all its -references in internal inner classes and methods. -Calls from other classes are not modified -- they keep referencing the original -class name. This allows the bridge to literally replace an implementation. +This simply changes the name of a class in its definition, as well as all its references in internal +inner classes and methods. Calls from other classes are not modified -- they keep referencing the +original class name. This allows the bridge to literally replace an implementation. -An example will make this easier: android.graphics.Paint is the main drawing -class that we need to replace. To do so, the generator renames Paint to _original_Paint. -Later the bridge provides its own replacement version of Paint which will be used -by the rest of the Android stack. The replacement version of Paint can still use -(either by inheritance or delegation) all the original non-native code of _original_Paint -if it so desires. +An example will make this easier: android.graphics.Paint is the main drawing class that we need to +replace. To do so, the generator renames Paint to _original_Paint. Later the bridge provides its own +replacement version of Paint which will be used by the rest of the Android stack. The replacement +version of Paint can still use (either by inheritance or delegation) all the original non-native +code of _original_Paint if it so desires. -Some of the Android classes are basically wrappers over native objects and since -we don't have the native code in Eclipse, we need to provide a full alternate -implementation. Sub-classing doesn't work as some native methods are static and -we don't control object creation. +Some of the Android classes are basically wrappers over native objects and since we don't have the +native code in Eclipse, we need to provide a full alternate implementation. Sub-classing doesn't +work as some native methods are static and we don't control object creation. This won't rename/replace the inner static methods of a given class. 4- Refactoring classes -This is very similar to the Renaming classes except that it also updates the reference in -all classes. This is done for classes which are added to the Dalvik VM for performance -reasons but are not present in the Standard Java VM. An implementation for these classes -is also injected. +This is very similar to the Renaming classes except that it also updates the reference in all +classes. This is done for classes which are added to the Dalvik VM for performance reasons but are +not present in the Standard Java VM. An implementation for these classes is also injected. 5- Method erasure based on return type -This is mostly an implementation detail of the bridge: in the Paint class -mentioned above, some inner static classes are used to pass around -attributes (e.g. FontMetrics, or the Style enum) and all the original implementation -is native. +This is mostly an implementation detail of the bridge: in the Paint class mentioned above, some +inner static classes are used to pass around attributes (e.g. FontMetrics, or the Style enum) and +all the original implementation is native. -In this case we have a strategy that tells the generator that anything returning, for -example, the inner class Paint$Style in the Paint class should be discarded and the -bridge will provide its own implementation. +In this case we have a strategy that tells the generator that anything returning, for example, the +inner class Paint$Style in the Paint class should be discarded and the bridge will provide its own +implementation. 6- Method Delegates -This strategy is used to override method implementations. -Given a method SomeClass.MethodName(), 1 or 2 methods are generated: -a- A copy of the original method named SomeClass.MethodName_Original(). - The content is the original method as-is from the reader. - This step is omitted if the method is native, since it has no Java implementation. -b- A brand new implementation of SomeClass.MethodName() which calls to a - non-existing static method named SomeClass_Delegate.MethodName(). - The implementation of this 'delegate' method is done in layoutlib_brigde. - -The delegate method is a static method. -If the original method is non-static, the delegate method receives the original 'this' -as its first argument. If the original method is an inner non-static method, it also -receives the inner 'this' as the second argument. +This strategy is used to override method implementations. Given a method SomeClass.MethodName(), 1 +or 2 methods are generated: +a- A copy of the original method named SomeClass.MethodName_Original(). The content is the original +method as-is from the reader. This step is omitted if the method is native, since it has no Java +implementation. +b- A brand new implementation of SomeClass.MethodName() which calls to a non-existing static method +named SomeClass_Delegate.MethodName(). The implementation of this 'delegate' method is done in +layoutlib_brigde. + +The delegate method is a static method. If the original method is non-static, the delegate method +receives the original 'this' as its first argument. If the original method is an inner non-static +method, it also receives the inner 'this' as the second argument. |