Introducing Huemul

[sig]

On 24/05/07, Sebastian Sastre <ssastre at seaswork.com> wrote:
>
> > -----Mensaje original-----
> > De: exupery-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org
> > [mailto:exupery-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] En nombre de sig
> > Enviado el: Jueves, 24 de Mayo de 2007 09:56
> > Para: Discussion about Exupery a native code compiler.
> > Asunto: Re: Introducing Huemul
> >
> > Good! Your reply shows me that i may not vorry about this.
> >
> > Then i would ask you about design of your VM architecture.
> > Its better to start from a clean view, that everything in VM
> > could be changed at some point.
> > And changed by programmer using smalltalk, not C or other
> > external tools.
>
> Sig, in general I agree with your position. The problem is costs to generate
> independece from those external tools in an equalized proportion to our
> communuty effort capability. How many optimizations the gcc are able to do?
> Now.. how many smalltalkers has experience with compilers and can develop
> the same degree of funcionality? How many of those can dedicate the hours
> that it'll require? And don't misundertood me, I'm not beign pesisimistinc,
> I'm beign realistic here. Until a .mzc with that compiler is available for
> squeak maybe the use of gcc to produce the result is the way to materialize
> results. It's 'changing the tire in a running car'. For sustainable projects
> we can't 'stop the car'. Otherwise people will easily be demotivated and
> efforts become quickly diluted.

Yes, sometimes you need to stop the car, because changing the tires
while driving is impossible. Currently to write a plugin i need to use
slate, then compile it , stop the car (VM) and finally start using it.
With new architecture, which i propose you don't need to stop VM in
most cases and you having instant results. So, who stops the car? ;)

And if you talking about that i want to replace a slate, then i agree,
every custom plugin written in slate must be rewritten. But who will
argue about stopping the car, when tires you changing will give you
more speed and maneurability?

Also, don't forget that in spite of С compilers having heavy
optimizing algorithms , they still have limitations which you can't
avoid, because of language itself. For instance - you can't check the
integer overflow in C while summing two integers. Can't construct a
function calls based on previously unknown type info, and have no
dynamic type system.