Dear Sir:
I am not a programmer, but I have been following Squeak since 2.1.  I  
have been using HP handhelds as they evolve.  I have always hoped you 
could automate the VM making of Squeak so it could be used easily on 
different platforms.  It has been my hope that the Squeak method could 
help me self teach programming (at least for Squeak) and use it for my 
own purposes.  I am a physician who just likes to dabble in computing 
and use it for music, patient data etc. on my small handheld.  Presently 
own the HP 720 Jornada, but as previously, am at the mercy of  Squeak 
programmers who might be interested in making a VM for small handheld 
which doesn't command much market share.
Hope you go further with this.
Thanks.
Aris Gredzens
akcgris at teleport.com

Tim Rowledge wrote:

> Sarkela <sarkela at home.com> is widely believed to have written:
> 
> 
>> Other projects might be,
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>     VM building
> 
> 
> Ta-Da! It's here!
> 
> OK, for 2.8 (ie the release upon which StableSqueak is built) there is
> now a beta release of the VMMaker on my website. I have provided three
> components:-
> the basic Squeak code
> (http://sumeru.stanford.EDU/tim/pooters/SqFiles/deltas/VMMaker2-8.zip)
> the RiscOS platform tree
> (http://sumeru.stanford.EDU/tim/pooters/SqFiles/deltas/VMMaker2-8-platRiscOS.zip )
> and the unix platform tree
> (http://sumeru.stanford.EDU/tim/pooters/SqFiles/deltas/VMMaker2-8-platUnix.tgz )
> 
> The unix tree works ok on my linuxPPC powerbook, but I am convinced
> that my modifications to the makefile/configure stuff must resemble
> random hacking by mutant monkeys. I do _not_ claim any proper competence
> in that area, but it does work for me.
> 
> Hopefully the two exemplar trees will illustrate what is needed for Mac
> & Windows, Be, OS/2, Amiga, etc. The RiscOS tree shows how I handle the
> building on a platform that has no analogue of autoconf, which is
> probably similar to the case for Macs and Windows.
> 
> There are areas still to be completed before it is truly a push-button
> tool. For one, there is no button to push! We need to decide on a way to
> work out the list of buildable plugins at runtime; at the moment I have
> deferred to a manually made list. I would like to see if it is worth
> having platform specific subclasses of the VMMaker that can build
> the makefiles; after all the VMMaker knows what plugins it is assembling
> and really ought to be able to do much of the job.
> 
> There is one really big bug that gets in the way right now. Copying a
> file from one directory to another is not supported at all by the normal
> Squeak image. I added a very simplistic facility for this in the
> VMMaker, deliberately an awkward place to remind us to fix the terrible
> File handling.  Unfortunately, it still doesn't deal with a crucial
> aspect of file copying - the permissions/typing of the file. Thus if you
> try the linux version you will have to manually reset the permissions of
> the assorted script files that get copied to src/ and src/util before
> anything works.
> 
> I propose to make a simple ExtendedFilePlugin to attempt to work around
> this on a temporary basis, just to make copying something that can be
> deferred to the platform. Unless of course, somebody else has found a
> solution for this already...
> 
> 
> A version for 3.1alpha is coming very soon, hopefully today.
> 
> tim
> 

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