[squeak-dev] [ANN] Squeak 5

Eliot Miranda eliot.miranda at gmail.com
Wed Aug 12 18:55:54 UTC 2015


Hi All,


    Fabio's kindly done most of the changes.  But some questions remain for
more general discussion.  See below.

Fabio,  thanks so much for doing this, and so quickly!

On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 8:51 PM, Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi All,
>
>     who will update http://squeak.org/downloads/ to include the 5.0
> release?
>
> a) I suggest that the 5.0 all-in-one have a line in the left-hand table
> that includes the 4.6 release and that it precede the 4.6 release in the
> list.
>

Done.


>
> b) the Trunk link points to TrunkImage.zip which contains a non-Spur image.
>

So this is the biggie.  What should we do?

- add a Trunk 5.0 build with a different link?  (Noooooo)

- change  http://build.squeak.org/job/SqueakTrunk to build what it says
(Yessss please, who can do this?)

- add a Squeak 4.6 build job?  Is that even worth it any more considering
4.6 is released and stable?  If it is then what should it build?  David?


> c) Spur VMs need to be linked to by an added line in the Virtual Machines
> list.
>

Not applicable.  the VM links point to the root of my site so they
effectively point to both old and Spur VMs.


>
> d) Spur imagers need to be included in the Image and Changes list under
> Custom Installation
>

Done.



>
> e) The SqueakV50.sources file also needs to be included in the Current
> Sources list.
>

Done.



> f) we could start a History list for the 5.0 line
>

This is probably quite a big reorg on the page and not urgent.


>
> So there are a few things to fix before 5.0 is freely downloadable.
>
> On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 8:23 PM, Chris Muller <ma.chris.m at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> In the 17 months since Squeak 4.5 was released, a huge development
>> effort took place to create the next generation virtual-machine for
>> the Squeak / Pharo / Newspeak family of programming systems.  Squeak
>> is the modern incarnation of the Smalltalk-80 programming environment
>> originally developed at the Xerox PARC.
>>
>> "Squeak 5" introduces this new VM and associated new memory model,
>> collectively referred to as "Spur".  Presented [1] by Eliot Miranda
>> and Clément Béra at the 2015 International Symposium on Memory
>> Management, this new VM affords Squeak applications a significant
>> boost in performance and memory management.  Among other
>> optimizations, the #become operation no longer requires a memory scan.
>> Object pinning and ephemerons are also now supported.  The release
>> notes [2] provide more details.
>>
>> The new memory model requires a new image file format.  Although this
>> new format results in about a 15% increased memory requirement for the
>> same number of 4.x objects, a new segmented heap allows memory to be
>> given back to the OS when its no longer needed, a great benefit for
>> application servers.
>>
>> As forward compatibility is as important to the Squeak community as
>> backward compatibility, Squeak 5 is delivers an image with identical
>> content as the recent 4.6 release.  Although this new Squeak 5 VM
>> cannot open images saved under the prior 4.x Cog format, objects and
>> code can be easily exported from the 4.x image and then imported into
>> Squeak 5.  Applications whose code runs strictly above the Smalltalk
>> meta layer will prove remarkably compatible with the new format, most
>> applications will require no changes whatsotever.
>>
>> Squeak 5 is the result of monumental effort by a tiny group of very
>> talented people, but its also just the beginning of yet a new effort;
>> Spur is just a stepping stone to a more ambitious goals planned over
>> the next five years.
>>
>> [1] -- A Partial Read Barrier for Efficient Support of Live
>> Object-oriented Programming
>>
>> http://conf.researchr.org/event/ismm-2015/ismm-2015-papers-a-partial-read-barrier-for-efficient-support-of-live-object-oriented-programming
>>
>> [2] -- Squeak 5 Release Notes
>> http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/6207
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> _,,,^..^,,,_
> best, Eliot
>



-- 
_,,,^..^,,,_
best, Eliot
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