[squeak-dev] Where is FilePlugin ? was Error installing Omnibase

David T. Lewis lewis at mail.msen.com
Fri May 15 02:58:43 UTC 2009


On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 12:47:11PM -0700, marcelo Cortez wrote:
> 
> --- El jue 14-may-09, David T. Lewis <lewis at mail.msen.com> escribi?:
> 
> > De: David T. Lewis <lewis at mail.msen.com>
> > Asunto: Re: [squeak-dev] Where is FilePlugin ? was Error installing Omnibase
> > Para: "The general-purpose Squeak developers list" <squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
> > Fecha: jueves, 14 de mayo de 2009, 4:26 pm
> > On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 08:58:01AM
> > -0700, marcelo Cortez wrote:
> > > 
> > > Mariano , Folks
> > > 
> > > the 3.9.1 stock image seems to be fine, but the
> > OmniBase test require
> > > FilePlugin. how to load it?
> > 
> > FilePlugin is included in the VMMaker package, available on
> > SqueakSource.
> 
> You mean compiling ?
> The Vmmaker process is obscure for me, is posible avoid compiling? 
> here any guide or link?
> Vmmaker brings a compiled version of this plugin? 
> (dll files for win32 platform).

No, you do not need to compile anything.

I do not know what is in the OmniBase test, so apologies in advance
if I am not giving the right information. However, this may help:

FilePlugin is a Smalltalk class, just like any other class. It happens
to be part of the VMMaker package (on SqueakSource, or from SqueakMap
or Universes if you do not mind a slightly older version).

I do not know why OmniBase tests would require FilePlugin, but
assuming that it does use it for some reason, you can get a copy
of the FilePlugin class by loading VMMaker.

For background (and you do not need to know this for Omnibase, but
it may be of interest), the Squeak virtual machine (/usr/local/bin/squeak,
or Squeak.exe) is written largely in Smalltalk. When building an
executable Squeak VM, a number of Smalltalk classes are translated
to C source code, and from that into executable machine code. The
class FilePlugin is one of the Smalltalk classes that serve as
"source code" in this process, such that it can both be used as
ordinary Smalltalk, and can also be translated into C code for
inclusion in the VM.

You do not need to worry about the executable FilePlugin module,
because every Squeak VM already has this included (either directly
compiled into the VM executable, or as a separate loadable module).
If that were not the case, you would not be able to access files
from Squeak, so you would not be able to load the image file or
do much of anything.

So don't worry about the FilePlugin executable, it is already present
in your Squeak system. On the other hand, the Smalltalk class FilePlugin
(which you can think of as the source code for the executable FilePlugin)
is only present if you load it e.g. from the VMMaker package on SqueakSource.
Once you have loaded this into your image, the methods in class
FilePlugin can be evaluated just like any other method. My guess would
be that the OmniBase tests are evaluating some method in class
FilePlugin (I don't know why), so you need to have the FilePlugin
class loaded, but you should not need to worry about compiling anything.

Dave




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