Imprinting or not

[Craig Latta]

Hi Chris--

> Other, by the way, is the name of a class. Not the best of names, I
> don't think.

     I meant that to be a reference to the phrase "self and other"; I
thought it was a fun pun. :)

> So the name of the browser as "Other Browser" is being
> specific, because it is a browser that displays instances of Other. I
> think Other instances are proxies of the contents of the mini image.

     Yeah, it's more of an "other-aware browser".

> I can see the classes in the mini image. I want to change one. I want
> to start hacking the mini image. How do I do that? I use the Other
> Browser the same way I would any browser: change the code; and, save.
> That's the method, I think, for "imprinting" the remote image.

     Yes, that's a way to imprint methods interactively.

> I start small. I add a class comment to a class in the mini image. I
> save. I highlight the code in the Wormhole server to snapshot the mini
> image. I close everything down. Start everything up and see if the
> comment is there. It is not. I have not imprinted.
>
> But is that because I used a class comment and not actual code?

     Yeah, that release doesn't imprint class comments yet, sorry.

> You will read that Spoon makes a deal about the two kinds of content
> in a CompiledMethod: byte codes and literals. I finally looked up
> what a literal is. A literal can be a number, a character, a string,
> a symbol, or an array containing any of the previous four. Spoon, I
> think, when it puts the compiled methods in the mini image replaces
> the literals with "literal markers". Do the actual literals stay in
> the history image?

     During imprinting, literal markers go over the network, and literal
markers are stored in the history memory. The subject memory uses the
literal markers to recreate the actual literals, and uses those literals
when recreating compiled methods.


-C

--
Craig Latta
www.netjam.org/resume
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