I suspect that Dwight sees the same difference I see between the
specification of a thing and the thing itself. The SystemTracer uses
the actual objects as the core of the specification of the new image
to be written. A declarative specification of an image would be
comprised of class, method, pool, pool variable, global variable,
instance variable, class variable definitions as well as the initializers
required to bring those variables to a state in which Smalltalk program
execution may occur.

Building a separate specification for a deliverable means that one needn't
pollute the name space of the deliverable application with that of the
development environment. The distinction is especially clear at the time
of application delivery.

One obvious advantage to such an approach is the maintenance of the
specification of an embedded application that runs in a headless environment.
The Firewall project at Objectshare used this declarative mechanism to allow
running the development tools in the development image and edit definitions
and inspect and debug objects in the remote target program, where ever it
happened to reside.

"There is more and less to a map than meets the eye."
John Sarkela

Tim Rowledge wrote:

> On Mon 18 Jan, Dwight Hughes wrote:
> > Alright now, let's not get into a "tastes great"/"less filling" debate.
> > :-) I find it quite interesting to consider what one might potentially
> > do with the combination of an ImageCreator (which would be part of the
> > Squeak image, not an external static program) _and_ the SystemTracer.
> Err, I'm confused; not that this is such an unusual occurence you
> understand :-)
> One way to  read your sentence above is that you think the SystemTracer is
> an external program - but I'm convinced you don't actually mean that since
> you have demonstrated on plenty of occasions that you know what you're
> talking about. So I'm puzzled as to what you see an ImageCreator doing that
> the cloner doesn't already do? I've used it on many occasions to create new
> images with different content, format, layout, and whatever else I have had
> to alter. What is missing? Is it just too-early mental binding of
> SystemTracer to some idea of 'merely' recreating the extant image? Or am I
> so tired tonight that my random sigline applies to me :-)
>
> tim
>
> --
> Useful random insult:- If his IQ was two points higher he'd be a rock.
> Tim Rowledge:  rowledge at interval.com (w)  +1 (650) 842-6110 (w)
>  tim at sumeru.stanford.edu (h)  <http://sumeru.stanford.edu/tim>