First public push of the first step of the hazelnut GSoC project :)
*In a nutshell*
For those who didn't know SystemTracer (the father): It is a tool that traces a graph of objects and writes an image from it.
ImageWriter is a refactored, renamed and repackaged version of SystemTracer2 with the following changes: - The image format can be provided as a parameter. - You have to provide an SmalltalkImage object as root to write the image (so in the future we can write bootstrap with this). - The object format was reified in objects. So the code is easier to understand + change, and people can learn how are our objects in memory easily :D.
Right now, only 32 bit image format is supported.
*Structure*
- ImageWriter-Core has the image formats and the image writer in itself - ImageWriter-ObjectFormats contains objects that represent the memory layout of the objects and it's headers. - ImageWriter-Tests has some tests.
*Tests done*
- Only tested in Pharo-1.4 - There are specific tests written for the size and headers of the objects - Also, I've written a Pharo-1.4 image and then run the tests in the copied image. Only one failure compared to the original :)
*Known Bugs :)*
- WeakRegistryTest>>#testFinalizationWithOnFork is failing, and when I run it manually it works :/. In the image I use to write, it does not happen, only in the clone. - When opening the new image, the window is too small. It is not respecting the original image size. Don't know yet what is the problem.
*How To Download*
Gofer it squeaksource3: 'ImageWriter'; package: 'ImageWriter-Core'; package: 'ImageWriter-ObjectFormats'; package: 'ImageWriter-Tests'; load
*How to Use it*
HzImageWriter new format: HzCogImageFormat new; "or HzInterpreterImageFormat new" imageFileName: 'someFile.image'; onInitializeDo: [ "Some initialization?" ]; "this is optional, probably the same as an startup script, probably nonsense" writeImage: Smalltalk "Yes, we provide the our lovely global Smalltak, but any SmalltalkImage instance could be"
*Next steps on this direction*
- support to write an isolated image different from the host one (I'll know what I need later, hehe) - class comments! - metacello configuration - better api :)
*Links*
http://ss3.gemstone.com/ss/ImageWriter.html
Cheers, Guille
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