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<TITLE>Re: [squeak-dev] Fwd: Chrome and V8</TITLE>
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The source code is available at: <a href="http://code.google.com/p/v8/">http://code.google.com/p/v8/</a><BR>
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On 9/2/08 3:23 PM, "John M McIntosh" <johnmci@smalltalkconsulting.com> wrote:<BR>
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From: Dave Griswold <David.Griswold.256@gmail.com> <BR>
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 12:14:32 -0700 (PDT) <BR>
Subject: Chrome and V8 <BR>
To: Strongtalk-general <strongtalk-general@googlegroups.com> <BR>
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Hi everyone, <BR>
<BR>
It's been a while, but now that Google has announced Chrome and V8, I <BR>
can finally make a little clearer a major reason why I haven't been <BR>
pushing Strongtalk development for quite a while: Chrome's new <BR>
JavaScript engine V8. <BR>
<BR>
The V8 development team has multiple members of the original <BR>
Animorphic team; it is headed by Lars Bak, who was the technical lead <BR>
for both Strongtalk and the HotSpot Java VM (as well as a huge <BR>
contributor to the original Self VM). I think that you will find <BR>
that V8 has a lot of the creamy goodness of the Strongtalk and Self <BR>
VMs, with many big architectural improvements: <BR>
<BR>
* open source <BR>
* will run (eventually) on Windows, Linux, and Mac <BR>
* dynamically JITs to native code <BR>
* can run completely independently from the browser <BR>
* generates hidden classes behind the scenes, since javascript doesn't <BR>
have them (very reminiscent of the 'maps' used in the Self VM). <BR>
* is multi-threaded from the ground up, with the ability to share VM <BR>
overhead between different OS processes. <BR>
* has even smaller object headers than in Strongtalk, making small <BR>
object overhead even smaller <BR>
* kick-ass compacting, non-conservative garbage collector <BR>
<BR>
The really big deal here is the fundamentally multi-threaded, multi- <BR>
process nature of the VM. That is something that we don't really have <BR>
the ability to just hack into the Strongtalk VM; it would involve <BR>
practically an entire rewrite. Plus, expect a lot of architectural <BR>
improvements in the source code based on experience with Self, <BR>
Strongtalk and Java Hotspot VMs. <BR>
<BR>
I think these properties will rapidly make V8 the dominant VM for <BR>
dynamic languages. It ought to make a great platform for Smalltalk. <BR>
<BR>
Since I am not a Googler, and they are so secretive, I am not yet <BR>
privy to all the gory details, but I suspect that it probably won't <BR>
use type-feedback like Strongtalk, which would be the one big negative <BR>
(and would mean that it wouldn't be as fast as Strongtalk). However I <BR>
don't know that for sure, and in any case it will be open source, <BR>
which means that it might be a nice platform to add type-feedback- <BR>
based inlining to if they don't do it. At any rate, it *does* JIT to <BR>
native code, so it will be far faster than Squeak, and probably a lot <BR>
faster than Visualworks as well. <BR>
<BR>
We'll have to see what the details are when the code comes out, but <BR>
the release of the V8 VM is the beginning of a whole new era for <BR>
dynamic languages (Smalltalk, Ruby, Python, etc). <BR>
<BR>
Let the flood of fast new dynamic language implementations begin! <BR>
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