I am writing some primitives and need to pass a signed 32-bit long from
C back into the Smalltalk object world. Inspired by the following
method:


!Interpreter methodsFor: 'primitive support'!
positive32BitIntegerFor: integerValue

        | newLargeInteger |
        "Note - integerValue is interpreted as POSITIVE, eg, as the
result of
                Bitmap>at:, or integer>bitAnd:."
        (integerValue >= 0 and: [self isIntegerValue: integerValue])
                ifTrue: [^ self integerObjectOf: integerValue].
        newLargeInteger _
                self instantiateSmallClass: (self splObj:
ClassLargePositiveInteger)
                                sizeInBytes: 8
                                                 fill: 0.
        self storeByte: 3 ofObject: newLargeInteger
                withValue: ((integerValue >> 24) bitAnd: 16rFF).
        self storeByte: 2 ofObject: newLargeInteger
                withValue: ((integerValue >> 16) bitAnd: 16rFF).
        self storeByte: 1 ofObject: newLargeInteger
                withValue: ((integerValue >> 8) bitAnd: 16rFF).
        self storeByte: 0 ofObject: newLargeInteger
                withValue: (integerValue bitAnd: 16rFF).
        ^ newLargeInteger! !


I attempted to write a version that would work with both negative and
positive longs, but I couldn't find an example of how to instantiate a
non-special class from the primitive world.


!Interpreter methodsFor: 'primitive support' stamp: 'mas 2/9/1999
13:09'!
signed32BitIntegerFor: integerValue

        | newLargeInteger theClass |

        
        self isIntegerValue: integerValue
                ifTrue: [^ self integerObjectOf: integerValue].
        integerValue > 0
                ifTrue: [theClass _ self splObj:
ClassLargePositiveInteger]
                ifFalse: [theClass _ self "?????what goes here?????"].
        newLargeInteger _ self instantiateSmallClass: theClass
                sizeInBytes: 8 fill: 0.
        self storeByte: 3 ofObject: newLargeInteger
                withValue: ((integerValue >> 24) bitAnd: 16rFF).
        self storeByte: 2 ofObject: newLargeInteger
                withValue: ((integerValue >> 16) bitAnd: 16rFF).
        self storeByte: 1 ofObject: newLargeInteger
                withValue: ((integerValue >> 8) bitAnd: 16rFF).
        self storeByte: 0 ofObject: newLargeInteger
                withValue: (integerValue bitAnd: 16rFF).
        ^ newLargeInteger! !


Any helpful hints would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
-Mark Schwenk