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Q. How do I spell GemStone?
Ans. GemStone is always spelled with upper case S. Some smart recruiters will
look for upper case S in your resume.
Q. What is the Stone?
Ans. The stone process handles locking and concurrent access to objects in the
repository. Each repository is monitored by a single stone.
Q. What is a Gem?
Ans. Gem is the object server for user application. The Gem reads the repository
as the application accesses objects, and it updates the repository when an application
commits a transaction. A repository can have more than one Gem process.
Q. What is a Repository?
Ans. Repository stores GemStone classes and persistent objects.
Q. What is the difference between a linked and RPC application?
Ans. In a linked application, Gem is integarted with the application into a single
process whereas in a RPC application, Gem runs as a separate process and responds
to RPCs from the application.
Q. What is GemBuilder?
Ans. GemBuilder is a set of classes and primitives installed in client smalltalk
image to facilitate working with the two object spaces (Smalltalk-Client &
GemStone-Server).
Q. What is GBSM?
Ans. GBSM is global that refers to the sole instance of GbsSessionManager class.
GBSM manages all known GemStone sessions and keeps track of the current session.
Q. How do I log into GemStone programmatically?
Ans.GBSM loginWithParameters: aGbsSessionParameters.
or
aGbsSessionParameters login.
Q. What are the two different types of transaction modes in GemStone?
Q. What is a connector?
Ans. A connector connects a GemStone object and a client smalltalk object when a
session logs in to the database.
Q. What are the different kinds of connectors?
Ans. 1. Name connector connects a smalltalk object with a GemStone object based
on their names (which can be different).
2. Fast connector keeps a direct reference to a smalltalk object and a GemStone
object id. This makes the connection fast because no resolution is necessary.
Q. What is the difference between a global connector and a session connector?
Ans. A global connector connects two objects whenever any session is logged in
whereas a session connector connects two objects only when a specific session
is logged in.
Q. Do I need to define a connector for every object in my application?
Ans No, because a connector connects not only the immediate object but also all
those objects that can be reached from it. Define connectors for only the root
objects of the persistent subsystems.
Q.What is a root object?
Ans. Root objects of an application are the persistent objects from which all
other persistent objects can be reached. The most common kinds of root objects are
(i) Global variables
(ii) Class variables
(iii) Class instance variables
Q What is a symbol list?
Ans. A symbol list is an array of symbol dictionaries. Symbol list is used in
compilation of GemStone code, in order to resolve references to objects by name.
Each GemStone user has a symbol list. Only objects named in symbol dictionaries
in a user’s symbol list are visible to that user.
Q. What are the names of default symbol dictionaries of a GemStone user?
Ans. Globals, UserGlobals, Published and UserClasses.
Q. How do I invoke a debugger in GemStone?
Ans. Insert self pause. in a GemStone method.
Q. What is the difference between the terms faulting and flushing?
Ans. The term faulting refers to moving modified GemStone objects into the client
Smalltalk , either creating a client Smalltalk replicate or updating an existing
replicate. The term flushing refers to moving modified client Smalltalk objects
into GemStone.
Q. How do I remotely excute code in GemStone from Smalltalk side?
Ans. aGSSession excute: aString aString contains GemStone smalltalk code. aGSObject remotePerform: aSelector.Q. What is a forwarder?
GSForwarder implements #doesNotUnderstand: as following. #doesNotUnderstand: aMessage ^gsObj remotePerform: aMessage selector withArgs: aMessage argumentsQ. How do I create a forwarder?
Q. What is the difference in results of sending the following messages to a forwarder?
aGSForwarder name and aGSForwarder fwname.
Ans.
aGSForwarder name returns a replicate.
aGSForwarder fwname returns a forwarder.
Q. What is a replicate?
Q. What is a stub?
Ans. A stub is an empty placeholder that knows nothing except which object it
represents in GemStone. It is implemented by GSObjectStub class.
Q. How do I control the number of levels to replicate when updating an object
from GemStone to Smalltalk?
Ans. By implementing #defaultGStoSTLevel method of GSSession class. A level of
0 means no limit, replicate the entire object. A level of 2 means retrieve root
object and each object it references . Objects at level 3 are converted into stubs.
Q. How do I unstub a stub?
Ans. By sending #fault message to a stub.
Q. Can I pass a stub as an argument to a primitive method?
Ans. No.
Q. How do I ensure that an object is never replicated to contain a stub down to
a certain level?
Ans. Implement class method #noStubLevel. Its return value should be an integer
specifying the number of levels to replicate.
Q. How do I convert a replicate into a stub?
Ans. By sending #stubYourself message to replicate.
Q. What is the result of sending a message to a stub?
Ans. It replicates the GemStone object it represents as a Smalltalk object, then
become that object and forwards the message. GSObjectStub implements #doesNotUnderstand:
as following.
#doesNotUnderstand: aMessage ^self fault perform: aMessage selector withArguments: aMessage arguments.Q. What is the difference between lazy and immediate fault policy?
Q. What do I mean by class history of a GemStone class?
Ans. GemStone supports multiple versions of a class. It keeps track of these
versions in a class history object. Sending #classHistory message to a class
returns its class history.
Q. How do I remove a version of GemStone class?
Ans. aClassHistory removeVersion: aClassQ. How do I find the latest version of a GemStone class?
Q. How do I migrate all the instances of a class to its latest version?
Ans. aClass migrateInstancesTo: aClass classHistory last.
Q. How do I remove all the old versions of a class?
Ans. 1 to: ( aClass classHistory size - 1) do: [ :each | aClass classHistory removeVersion: ( aClass classHistory at: each)].Q. What is the difference between the results of sending #asLocalObject and #asLocalObjectCopy messages to aGSObject?
Q. How do I mark a Smalltalk object as dirty?
Ans anObject markDirty. It is generally included in the setter methods for
the object.
Q. How do I mark objects dirty automatically without sending #markDirty in
setter methods?
Ans aClass markDirtyOnInstVarAssign marks the objects of aClass dirty on
assignment of instance variables.
aClass markDirtyOnAtPut marks the objects of aClass dirty if they receive
#at:put: messages.