iMac support

[Bryce Kampjes]

On Sun, 2009-07-05 at 13:51 -0400, Cameron Sanders wrote:
> Bryce & Exupery-minded folks:
> 
> I am using Pharo on an iMac for an in-house project that may later  
> become a commercial product. My main displeasure with Pharo right now  
> is performance; it sounds like Exupery may help greatly.
> 
> With that in mind, I am willing to help with Exupery, at least in  
> terms of compilation on the iMac. I must be realistic about my time: I  
> won't be able to invest a block of time until November or December.  
> Still, along the way, I can begin exploring and learning.

A x86 Mac port should be relatively simple. There are two issues
to deal with:
 * Don't use gcc 4.0.1 because of a bug in the optimiser
 * Change the flags to mmap to work on the Mac

The problem is gcc 4.0.1 is the one in xcode so the normal one used on
the Mac. When we tried porting to the Mac at ESUG in Lugano we worked
around the gcc bug by using -O0 switching off gcc's optimisations.

Exupery itself may need a little more work before it's providing a
practical performance improvement. It can speed up real code now, and it
will do better with a little tuning of the profiler that drives
compilation.

Bryce