> > A microkernel OS would definately be cooler than Linux, and a No-OS would
> > be ever better, but I'm thinking in practical terms...  Linux would
> > provide us the ability to run on many platforms (like the OS-requiring
> > version of Squeak now) and provide us with drivers galore.
> Drivers is an unsolved issue in SqueakNOS as far as I know. To connect it to
> my 
> Epson printer fx would be a hassle...
Done the No-OS thing, it's fine except for this driver business. The
OSKit seems to offer a sensible compromise for that.

> > 
> > Something that could be pretty cool that one couldn't get as easily as
> > with a SqueakNOS is having a C-compiler.  It'd be *way* cool to have a
> > plug-in/driver IDE all in Squeak. From Slang to binaries- be them
> > executables, libraries or kernel modules/extensions- all within the Squeak
> > environment.  Make it all a front end on gcc and gdb.  It wouldn't be
> > Smalltalk, but it would beat having to quit Squeak (or switch to a
> > terminal from the frame buffer), do all of your editing in
> > pico/emacs/pico, compiling debugging and then returning to Squeak.  Just
> > an idea...
> There are various Smalltalk classes that convert Smalltalk to machine code directly
> so there is no need to deal with other tools and languages at all. 
> But you would have to rewrite all your C code in Smalltalk first...
> Or maybe there is such a converter out there ? :-)
The old Interval Research Slang->{C,ASM,machine-code} converter is still
on my website for anyone interested. See
http://sumeru.stanford.edu/tim/pooters/SqFiles/deltas/translator.tar.gz
for details.
Most of the VM is already slang-ish and it is surprisingly easy to write
slang once you get in the habit. We (as in the group at Interval) were
working on improvements to Slang to make it really easy (structurey
stuff etc) but it didn't get completed.

tim
-- 
Tim Rowledge, tim at sumeru.stanford.edu, http://sumeru.stanford.edu/tim
UNIX is a computer virus with a user interface.