John Pierce wrote:
>> We've had plans for about 8 years; a new compiled method format that
>> as a side effect would allow essentially infinite size source files.
> 
> Sounds pretty significant to change the compiled method format. I
> wonder if the passage of time is making this problem easier?

Yes, and I would've done it in Croquet if I had a little more time. 
Basically, all you need to do is to trade the method trailer with a slot 
in MethodProperties to store the source pointer. Now that you have a 
real object it's trivial to use something like, say negative integers as 
offset in the sources file, positive integers as offset in the changes 
file and anything else would be something that simply responds to 
#value. This preserves the compact default encoding (e.g., 4 bytes for 
the common case of method source in sources/changes) without standing in 
the way of future extensibility.

Cheers,
   - Andreas