Hi John,

> I talked to the Web Services group about this. Web services is a
> complex interface. Joseph work is focused on having a lightweight
> bootstrap image which would have a minimum socket interface with a
> minimal protocol which would allow you just to interchange requests
> and receive back data say byte codes from a compiler, or say an
> independent grammar or SIF which you compile.

    I think I didn't express myself clearly (I was so excited :-). Joseph
was talking about a light weight bootstrap image (an installer in Squeak ?)
and I was talking about building a custom made bootstrap image (using the
facilities available from a full blown Squeak, including a Web Server, on
one end and the native platform on the other end where the Squeak Installer
is running).

    So when I referred to Web Service I was thinking of leveraging the
facilities provided by the underlying platform, just like I am using WinInet
to download plugins (dll's) via http/ftp protocol (Is this facility widely
available on other platforms like Mac, Linux... ?).

    How far should we rely (or, not to rely) on the underlying platforms ?
For example, XML, SOAP will eventually be common comodity on all major
platforms, or not ?

    Anyway, the main thing Joseph pointed out was that we do not need a
compiler out of the Squeak image. Its service will be somehow made available
through a server. What remains to be seen is, what will that service provide
and how can one make use of it to build/grow an image.

    Thanks for spending your precious time trying to get an answer for my
question.

    Cheers,

    PhiHo


----- Original Message -----
From: "John M McIntosh" <johnmci at mac.com>
To: <squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2001 7:49 AM
Subject: (no subject)


> >Hi John,
> >
> >     Thanks for your report, I am looking forward for  the next
installment.
> >If it is not too much trouble for you, would you please try to get an
answer
> >for the following question:
> >
> >     Now, that Web Service can deliver compiled modules in either
> >CompiledMethod (?) format or ImageSegment format. Which one would be more
> >preferrable, simpler for the ModuleManger in creating a bootstrap image ?
> >
> >     Cheers,
> >
> >     PhiHo
>
> I talked to the Web Services group about this. Web services is a
> complex interface. Joseph work is focused on having a lightweight
> bootstrap image which would have a minimum socket interface with a
> minimal protocol which would allow you just to interchange requests
> and receive back data say byte codes from a compiler, or say an
> independent grammar or SIF which you compile. I would think you could
> also fetch back DLLs and install them as you integrate services into
> your image. the web services folks felt yes you could do this via web
> services server, but it's a very heavy weight client, there are
> simpler choices, er a DB2 interface for example. Remember Joseph work
> only defines how an image is build from the definitions, the storage
> and retrieval of this data is not work he is tackling, beyond a
> simple socket or file system support
>
> Today I did sit with him and we worked on getting a squeak image to
> read a SIF stream from a socket and compile and execute that stream
> using a semantic model. The stream came from either VisualAge or
> VisualWorks, later today we will have the visualAge and VisualWorks
> images act as the receiver of the stream and the compiler.
> --
> --
>
===========================================================================
> John M. McIntosh <johnmci at smalltalkconsulting.com> 1-800-477-2659
> Corporate Smalltalk Consulting Ltd.  http://www.smalltalkconsulting.com
>
===========================================================================
>
>