[Vm-dev] Strongtalk VM for Squeak?

Brad Fuller brad at sonaural.com
Fri Sep 15 23:17:01 UTC 2006


Andreas Raab wrote:
>
> I think a project like this would need some champion. Having a
> Strongtalk VM would be wonderful but it's likely to be a lot of work
> and if I look around I don't see a lot of people with spare time at
> their disposal.
What if we had a technical lead in the Squeak VM community that could
lead a Sun sponsored group (of 1 or 2).  The work could be delineated in
large chunks - defined in such a way that the work could be done by
several people, at different times. Part-time Squeakers answer tough
questions about Squeak and even code here and there - but most of the
coding is done by Sun. If organized and planned in chunks, maybe it
could be done little by little. More cost would go into the planning of
the project. We'd need to know exactly the status of the current code
and how hard it would be to organize it to start a project.

In this scenario, the Sun team, who understands the code better, can
pass the code knowledge onto the Squeaker(s) that are leading the team.
That way, the Squeak community acquires the knowledge needed to maintain
the code. The squeakers can pass knowledge about the inner workings of
Squeak to Sun.

Granted it would be using the workhorse of this "speculative" Sun team.

The Squeak Foundation could sponsor the "open source" initiative
(website, tracking, server space). What chance is there of getting Sun
to contribute? What can Squeak contribute back to Sun in exchange?
If Sun can't contribute manpower, can they contribute funding to the
Squeak Foundation to put toward experienced coders?

brad
> David Griswold wrote:
>> Hi Squeak VMers,
>>  
>> I would like to start a dialog about the possiblity of joining
>> forces, perhaps with the goal of producing a version of the
>> Strongtalk VM for Squeak.  
>> Our problem over here is that the release of the VM source isn't very
>> well timed, since no one from the original Strongtalk team has the
>> time or inclination to support a full-blown open source effort to get
>> the whole Strongtalk system finished and usable as a separate version
>> of Smalltalk.   It may turn out that Gilad Bracha can get some Sun
>> funding to get a few VM engineers going on it, but that is
>> speculation at this point.  
>> Personally, I just want to follow the fastest path to getting an
>> open-source Smalltalk with this VM technology out there.   If there
>> is enough interest from Squeak VM-land,  I would prefer to refocus
>> energy from the Strongtalk community towards helping get Squeak up
>> and running on our VM, porting it, etc.
>>  
>> What is the thinking in Squeak-land about this?
>>  
>> Cheers,
>> Dave



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