[Vm-dev] Pypy-Squeak VM generation news

[Adrian Kuhn]

Hi Andreas and Michael,

On 22 Oct 2007, at 23:25 , Michael Haupt wrote:

>>> My guess is it's "use the PyPy *tool chain* to generate a Squeak  
>>> VM".
>>
>> And what exactly does *that* mean? Rewrite the code generator in  
>> Python
>> to generate C code from Slang? Rewrite the VM in Python? Use PyPy
>> translation tools to generate code from Squeak parse trees? There  
>> are so
>> many possible ways of "using tools" ...
>
> it means (simplified) rewriting the VM in Python and compiling it
> using the PyPy tool chain.

more precise, it means writing a Smalltalk bytecode interpreter in  
RPython and using the PyPy tool chain to generate a VM out of this.

Why not SqueeSquee?

We discussed this option yesterday. Its first step would be to define  
a subset of Smalltalk in the same way it is done with RPython  
(reduced Python). Let's call this RSqueak. Then, one would implement  
a new front end for the PyPy tool chain, based on RSqueak and written  
in Smalltalk. Like that we could feed the chain from Smalltalk, and  
later start to build our own VM generation tool chain in Smalltalk.

Alas, we feel not yet ready to do that. The Pypy sprinters miss in- 
depth understanding of Smalltalk, whereas we Squeak sprinters miss in- 
depth understanding of PyPy. Hence we decided for the current goal to  
learn from each other, keeping SqueeSquee as a long term goal in mind.

That's at least how I grok this week's goals. But, that I initiated  
this sprint does not mean that my view is authoritative, the other  
sprinters best speak for themselves. I will ask the other sprinters  
to join the discussion on this list also today...

cheers,
AA