Ronald Spengler wrote:
> We're bumping up against the homoiconicity of the system, aren't we?
> That code is really just a kind of data. Has anyone ever done a diff tool
> for whole images, not just source methods?

Like I said in another reply, given that Squeak objects don't have a
fixed identity (see other thread) it isn't very easy. But I don't think
it is impossible in practice since objects mostly exist in very
stereotyped patterns.

> It would be fantabulous if I didn't have to write an installer script for
> my package, instead having the necessary objects brought over directly. 

That is what I want. And I partly had it in Smalltalk V/Win (also
released as Smalltalk Express). In that system your image started out as
an essentially empty v.exe file plus a bunch of .dll files with objects
and code. Some of these had to be shipped with the application while
many (with all the development tools) couldn't (due to the license). The
.dll files had lots of stuff you wouldn't need but you had to ship them
even if you only needed a single object. And there were no tools to tell
you that you were using any objects from a .dll so you might ship if
even if you didn't need it. But I don't think all these problems would
be too hard to fix.

> Seems like the mother of all problems is: moving things around that way
> between images of different formats. Would some future descendant of
> SystemTracer perhaps be of use?

If you want to send messages between these different images and you want
to be able to send over some of the arguments (instead of just a far
reference back to the sending image) then this problem has to be solved
anyway. Perhaps we are talking about something more like the Corba
serialization format than the SystemTracer, but it certainly is related
to the latter.

-- Jecel