On Wed, Feb 19, 2020 at 10:45 AM tim Rowledge <tim at rowledge.org> wrote:

>
>
> > On 2020-02-18, at 6:08 PM, David T. Lewis <lewis at mail.msen.com> wrote:
> >
> > Not obvious, but worth knowing:
> >
> > "Smalltalk listBuiltinModules" gives a list of all internal plugins.
> > These are the plugins that are compiled into the main VM executable.
> >
> > "Smalltalk listLoadedModules" give a list of all external plugins that
> > have so far been loaded. It is not necessarily a list of all of the
> > external plugins, rather it is the external plugins that have been
> > referenced by the image. The external plugins are loaded on demand,
> > and once loaded, are available for fast access to the primitives that
> > they provide.
>
> Also note that you can unload a plugin; this is primarily a benefit when
> you are developing a plugin since you can build it, compile it, try it,
> decide something needs more work, unload it, re build it, recompile it, try
> it again and so on. Much faster than building it internal every time and
> rebuilding the vm etc.
>
> >
> > If a plugin is compiled as a built-in module, and if it also is
> > compiled as a separate external plugin (Windows dll or Unix shared
> > library), then the external plugin overrides the primitive implemented
> > in the built-in module.
>
>
> The key point about the external over-riding internal is to support bug
> fixing without replacing the entire vm. It does of course also almost
> completely obviate the value of the SecurityPlugin.
>

The SecurityPlugin could be extended to allow/disallow plugin un/re/loading
and could refuse to allow itself to be unloaded.


P.S. I'm getting a bit frustrated that VM discussions are being held on the
general purpose list and not on vm-dev.  Not because I don't want Vm
discussions here, but that vm-dev is a place of record.  Please try and cc
vm-dev when a discussion strays that way.

tim
> --
> tim Rowledge; tim at rowledge.org; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
> A hacker does for love what others would not do for money.
>
>
>
>

-- 
_,,,^..^,,,_
best, Eliot
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