[squeak-dev] Re: The solution of (Was: Creating an image from first principles)

Klaus D. Witzel klaus.witzel at cobss.com
Thu Aug 7 15:34:27 UTC 2008


On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:15:12 +0200, tim Rowledge wrote:

> On 7-Aug-08, at 5:18 AM, K. K. Subramaniam wrote:
>>>
>> I think the original question about creating an image from first  
>> principles
>> was about transmutation, not cloning.
>
> The SystemTracer can easily create new images from specs rather than  
> 'merely cloning' an existing image. It writes bits into a chunk of  
> WordAray whic is then written out in a usable format. It would be  
> trivial to provide a primitive that writes the new image memory to  
> another process in a HydraVM instead of writing to a file.

Yeah, that was the thought behind the discussion with Igor, thank you for  
mentioning it.

> Cloning simply uses an existing image as a spec.

Hhm, the way this reads to me, partial "cloning" of a subsets of objects +  
substituting some of them means something incompatible (horrible?) versus  
what SystemTracer => HydraVM would do in sequence. What would be an  
understandable, acceptable term for it?

/Klaus

> There is nothing to prevent us using xml or some other horrific format  
> as a spec to generate a completely from-scratch image via the tracer.
>
>> How does one create a Smalltalk
>> environment (i.e. an image) starting with an environment that has only
>> imperative programming tools (e.g. C/C++, Forth etc.)? What is sought  
>> is a
>> process that can be replicated by anyone proficient in the imperative
>> environment.
>
> Why waste time using crappy tools. We already have working Smalltalk  
> systems. It would be as silly as me replicating the work where I  
> manually created stub images for testing back in 1987.

+1

> tim
> --
> tim Rowledge; tim at rowledge.org; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
> Fractured Idiom:- MERCI RIEN - Thanks for nothin'.
>
>
>
>





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