Stephen Austin wrote:
On 11/21/06, Bert Freudenberg bert@freudenbergs.de wrote:
That's a thing you have to deeply understand. In all object-oriented systems that are *not* image-based (which is the huge majority)...
Just curious - can you name any others which are image-based in the same way as Smalltalk/Squeak?
How about Common LISP (with CLOS) and FORTH for two? FORTH isn't OOP, but at least one author described how an OOP FORTH could be done (Dick Pountain). FORTH doesn't save "images" as much as they utilize the source code model: start up with the core, and load extensions from source. Other than that, the model is the same.
This "image-based" idea is what makes FORTHers - or LISPers - or Smalltalkers roll their eyes and sigh heavily (figuratively speaking!!) when someone says: "Yes, but how do I save JUST MY PROGRAM into an executable?"
In all three languages, one works in a complete environment, and "saving a program" either means saving the source code to be read in or saving the environment image.