It might be useful to come up with a "semi-compiled" format for compiled
methods.  You could store the literals in source or some other encoded
form.  I imagine that such a thing might be desirable at some point for
quickly loading modules (i.e. if you wanted to quickly build an image up
from nothing but a bare bones image and modules).

- Stephen

> -----Original Message-----
> From: squeak-dev-admin at lists.squeakfoundation.org 
> [mailto:squeak-dev-admin at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On 
> Behalf Of John.Maloney at disney.com
> Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 1:34 PM
> To: squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org
> Subject: Re: serialization and rematerialization of 
> CompiledMethods,assistance needed!
> 
> 
> Chris,
> 
> CompiledMethods are a little tricky, because they are a 
> hybrid of a bytes object and a pointer-field object. The 
> method's "literals" (i.e., literal objects such as strings, 
> points, floats, etc. that appear in the method text, as well 
> as references to class and global variables which are 
> Association objects) are stored in the first part of the 
> CompiledMethod. These are actual object pointers. If you 
> simply serialize and deserialize the CompiledMethod as bytes, 
> you'll end up with garbage literal object pointers on the 
> other side, which would be Very Bad.
> 
> The easiest thing would be to follow Bob's suggestion and use 
> some form of source code. Alternatively, you could use the 
> image segment machinery, although that's trickier. If you 
> don't want to save the comments and local variable names, you 
> could use the decompiler to produce a generic source string 
> for the method.
> 
> 	-- John
> 
> 
> At 9:20 PM -0800 2/20/02, Chris Muller wrote:
> >I need to be able to serialize a CompiledMethod to a byteArray and 
> >bring it back and use it.
> >
> >The serialization is easy since the CompiledMethod already is a 
> >ByteArray.
> >
> >But how do I convert that ByteArray to a usable method again?  The 
> >overridden
> >basicNew: constructor urges "CompiledMethods may only be created with
> >newMethod:header:".
> >
> >But I'm not sure where to get that first argument (labelled 
> >"numberOfBytes" in the method code).  I tried using the #size of the 
> >original method.  It functioned, but it did not report = to the 
> >original.  See my test script here:
> >
> >| m copy |
> >m _ (MyClass >> #test).
> >copy _ (CompiledMethod newMethod: m size header: m header)
> >    replaceFrom: 1
> >    to: m size
> >    with: m
> >    startingAt: 1.
> >MyClass methodDict
> >    at: #test
> >    put: copy.
> >MyClass new test.
> >^m = copy
> >
> >I also tried creating a CompiledMethod with basicNew: and then just a
> >copyFrom:to: from the old method and that seemed to work 
> too!  It then 
> >actually answered true to the =.  This seems to be an 
> improvement but 
> >I'm not sure about the structure of CompiledMethods.
> >
> >I'm also not sure whether MyClass methodDict at:put: is the 
> appropriate 
> >way to install back into the class or not, but it worked..
> >
> >Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
> >
> >Regards,
> >  Chris Muller
> 
> 
> 
>