I'm new to the list

[Klaus D. Witzel]

Hi list,

I just read (in the #squeak IRC log) that this list is now served by  
news.gmane.org, so it's time for me to subscribe :)

I have two interests here: tracking of news for The Weekly Squeak  
( http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/5740 ) and learning new ways (& tipps  
& tricks :) on how performance constraints can and will influence  
development of outstanding software (emphasis on but not limited to  
Squeak).

I have just finished tweaking Squeaks's VM for allowing me to define sort  
of "basic" ClassBox for which the VM can report:
- memory allocation and reclamation
- message sends entering the box
- message sends within the box
- message sends leaving the box

When the box (which can be redefined in Squeak without compiling the VM)  
is empty, the above changes have less than 1% performance penalty on  
bytecode execution and less than 10% performance penalty on message sends  
(relative to '0 tinyBenchmarks'), so are almost acceptable even for HTTP  
servers and multimedia applications.

My next steps are to brain storm and populate example boxes as  
representable sets which exhibit interesting characteristics. For example,  
"what Number methods are involved in Collection operations", "what  
Magnitude methods are involved in BitBlt operations", just to give an  
idea. The boxes I define have two configurable components: the out-of-box  
behaviors and the in-the-box behaviors, that's what makes them flexible.

I'd be happy to receiving *any suggestions* for example boxes from members  
of the list, for example what is currently defined for benchmarking  
Exupery.

/Klaus