Hi David,
David J. Goehrig wrote:
Squeakers, Squeakians, Squeakites, and Squeakods, Allow me to mark the end of 2008 by sharing with you a little story and a wish list for 2010.
How do you feel about your message now, one year later? I am interested in pretty much all of the things you discuss in the message: in particular, in gaining a clearer understanding of the interaction between a hosting and the hosted system: the VM and image, if you like, or recursively, processes in the image and the InterpreterSimulator'd subimage.
1.) Primatives can not be added to the VM on the fly, by just
assembling some code and running it.
This is the only one of your list that's low-hanging fruit, really, if you don't mind poking at the VM sources a bit that is. A primitive for getting the system to set %eip (%rip) to the start of a given ByteArray would do the trick ;-)
Perhaps Alien will help here?
1.) I can't test new hardware in a running squeak image 2.) I can't load and unload applications, without affecting the underlying system 3.) I can't load and unload multiple versions of a "module" without substantial hackery 4.) I can't run 2 of the same process at once, and be sure that they don't affect eachother's internal state 5.) I can't extend the interface procedurally, without risking breaking my debugger! 6.) I can't test multiple versions of my code base against the same set of live objects!
These, to me, are (still) *excellent* requirements for a Smalltalk of the Future!
Regards, Tony