[squeak-dev] All-in-one VM for 4.4?

David Corking lists at dcorking.com
Wed Mar 6 17:06:28 UTC 2013


I read Paul's lists of external plugins. Thanks: I, for one,
appreciate the attention to detail.

(1) I recall that there was a plan to include the four Scratch
plugins, such as Camera, in Squeak 4.4 . I don't know if we have code
in the image that requires them, but they may encourage interesting
new packages, or smooth the way for the port of Etoys to trunk.

Please consider adding them in 4.4 or 4.5 all-in-ones.

(2) Cog VMs list of externals seem shorter. Unless Eliot has built the
others as internals, Cog VMs may miss important functionality. For
example, Linux users could get crashes without the pulse audio plugin.
(There are workarounds in one version of Bert's launcher script, but I
don't know if they are well tested, or if that version of the script
can be included in the All-in-One.) I think all platforms will miss
Kedama.

Please mention in the release notes that (for now) users who download
the Cog all-in-one will trade functionality for speed.

(3) Tobias Pape wrote:
> I was under the impression, that 5.4.7.1 was the
> latest, recommended non-Cog VM for mac… go figure

I think Bert has advised you correctly. My recollection is that the
"Cocoa Interpreter VM" line of development was abandoned in favour of
the Cog VM (I remember hearing that Xcode had some idiosyncrasies that
made it difficult to achieve quite the same level of quality as the
'Carbon VM' but that isn't important now.) The 'Carbon VM' interpreter
Squeak 4.2.5beta1U.app as linked works fine in OS X.

(I think http://squeakvm.org/mac/ might benefit moving 'Cocoa VM'
further down the page.)

(4) Isn't there a stub version of HostWindow for Mac and Win? Should
that be in the VMs?

Please educate me if I have the wrong end of the stick in any of my 4 comments.

Have fun! David


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