At 2:47 AM +0100 2/14/2000, Stephan Rudlof wrote:
>Do you think there are only advantages to the current InterpreterPlugin
>approach, or are there any drawbacks?

I can see one immediate drawback.

While intermediate code generation would be convenient in some ways, 
let us not forget that intermediate generation to C-code permits 
Squeak to leverage the quality of highly mature, highly optimizing 
compilers built painstakingly, platform by platform, over the past 
twenty or so years.  The difference between a dull and a highly 
optimizing compiler can be an order of magnitude in some cases -- and 
the existence of so many high quality C compilers is a large reason 
Squeak is so readily portable today.

I cannot imagine that RTOSmalltalk could provide a fraction of the 
quality of code across platforms as does the SqC approach.

>Do you think the RTOSmalltalk codegenerator could replace the Squeak
>CCodeGenerator (followed by a C compiler) in the near future?

Where would we find it?  What platforms does it presently support? 
Is it readily convertible across platforms?