2008/8/8 K. K. Subramaniam <subbukk at gmail.com>:
> On Friday 08 Aug 2008 5:21:45 am tim Rowledge wrote:
>> On 7-Aug-08, at 10:25 AM, K. K. Subramaniam wrote:
>> > SystemTracer is a Smalltalk utility. So it does not qualify as a
>> > transmutation
>> > tool.
>>
>> What? Don't be silly.
> No. I am dead serious. I am curious about what does it take for a
> non-smalltalk system to self host a Smalltalk environment? If there is
> already a Smalltalk environment then the question doesn't arise at all.
>
>> >> Why waste time using crappy tools...
>> >
>> > Mmm.. Why do the tools and utilities required to build a VM, garbage
>> > collector, primitives and plugins suddenly become "crappy" when
>> > building an
>> > initial image?
>>
>> They don't. They're crappy to begin with. I've spent decades fighting
>> with C compilers and debuggers etc etc etc and anyone that claims
>> they're good is clearly either totally inexperienced with using them
>> or deluded.
> Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. Back to the main query -
> what is so mysterious ;-) in a image that can't be captured in an imperative
> environment?
>

Nobody says its impossible. Its just about using right tools for doing things.

It you want to do just compile & populate objects, or translate an
already existing image to new one - its not a problem to write code in
C.
But when you want to trim already existing image with different
analysis based on reflection and introspection - doing this in C would
be really silly.

> Subbu
>

-- 
Best regards,
Igor Stasenko AKA sig.