Re: building an image

Oliver,

Thanks for the response, your description mirrors pretty much my
understanding to date as well.

thanks,
the other dave

On 3/5/07, oe <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm still trying to figure out, like a high level model of the VM. The
> available documentation doesn't help me much here, I have to say, and
> it took some time to get into this. So not sure what you mean exactly
> with
>
> > trying to sort out how the image gets built so I can track the
> > entrypoint into the runtime environment and see what how the UI gets
> > loaded.
>
> , but I'll try to explain briefly what I've found out about how the VM
> starts into the GUI.
>
> - VM starts in shell.cpp, initialization (bootstrap.cpp, mainly
> bootstrap::parse_file())
> - in process.cpp: VMProcess::activate_system(). This is where things
> get interesting (and difficult, at least for me ;). The VM process
> tries to retrieve a 'Delta level Processor' (see comments there) from
> the system dictionary, which was (supposedly) previously loaded from
> the image by the bootstrap code. I guess that the OOPs (processOop
> etc.) involved are actually C++ representations of Smalltalk classes/
> objects stored in the image (if this makes sense). You can inspect the
> Smalltalk code by opening Strongtalk, then Browse->All Classes-
> >Processor(->ProcessorScheduler).
> - then, the "initial process" is created (new DeltaProcess) to call
> the "start" method of scheduler just created (a method written in
> Smalltalk, see Strongtalk class browser: Class ProcessorScheduler-
> >Instance side->restricted->start).
> - the actual call to "start" originates in the delta process once it
> is run (that is, control is transfered by the scheduler): process.cpp
> DeltaProcess::launch_delta, then delta.cpp Delta::call, all the way
> down to interpreter_asm.asm call_delta, where the actual call takes
> place. So I assume this is the point where Smalltalk code takes over
> and drives further initialization of the system and GUI.
> - also, if you look at the Smalltalk classes, especially
> ExternalProxy, External* and Win32, I believe that there is a lot of
> platform specific code written in Smalltalk, using Windows DLL calls
> to interface with the OS (hence all the dll stuff/primitives in the C+
> + code)... just speculating, though!
>
> So, that's about my quick tour of the VM startup, hope it helps -- or
> maybe I've just missed the point of your post?  I haven't even manage
> to build a new image file from within the Strongtalk GUI, but it's
> been a while.Some information about the image file format and its
> contents would definitely be helpful; I have to look at this again
> when time permits.
>
> Oliver
>
>
> >
>


-- 
A man's greatest treasure is his wife, she is a gift from the Lord
- Proverbs 18:22

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