Squeak: who's afraid of the big bad "crash"?

Eliot & Linda elcm at pacbell.net
Tue Dec 15 17:11:04 UTC 1998


Paul Fernhout wrote:

> The expression: "SystemDictionary become: nil" crashes the 2.2 Squeak
> Windows VM under NT 4.0. Now, admittedly, I was intentionally looking
> for the smallest expression that will crash a Squeak system... To fix
> this may require extra checks which would slow down the VM. I did this
> to raise an important philosophical point about Smalltalk and "crashes".

[lots of good points deleted]

Please excuse me but I can't resist posting my own VM virus.  It doesn't
exactly crash the system.  One can change the implementation to fix this
(see VisualWorks 3.0 heh heh) but currently most Smalltalk VMs are so
offended by it that they refuse to participate in any subsequent
conversation what so ever.

| a |
a _ Array with: #perform:withArguments: with: nil.
a at: 2 put: a.
a perform: a first withArguments: a

_______________,,,^..^,,,_______________
Eliot Miranda, ParcPlace





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