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gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.strongtalk |
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Even if Squeak gets ported to the Strongtalk VM and is an order of
magnitude faster, some Squeakers will prefer to use the existing VM.
They find Squeak fast enough, and the current VM is easy to modify and
to port. Squeak runs on an amazing number of platforms. However, a
lot of people want a faster VM. For example, I bet the Croquet folks
would switch if Strongtalk were reliable and fast enough. Most
Squeakers don't hack the VM, and will be happy to get faster
performance by just switching VMs. Croquet only runs on a few
platforms, so if Strongtalk ran on those same platforms it would be
good enough for Croquet.
Unfortunately, it will not be a matter of just switching VMs, people
who want to use Strongtalk VM will also have to switch images.
Strongtalk will have a different bytecode format, a different set of
primitives, and a different object format. The usual way to make a
major change to a VM is to use a program (whose name I forget) that
traces all the objects in the old image and creates a new one. To
make a major change to bytecodes, you'd probably compute all the nes
bytecodes in Smalltalk and store them somewhere (perhaps a dictionary
from compiled methods to new bytecodes) and then when you write out a
new image, you'd copy the new bytecodds instead of the old ones.
In the long run, if Strongtalk is good enough, we could look into
designing an image format that both VMs could use. The Squeak VM is
easy to change, so it might be easier to change it than to change
Strongtalk, but undoubtedly compromizes would be needed. In the short
run, you should plan to have a program that converts a regular Squeak
image into a Strongtalk-Squeak one.
-Ralph Johnson
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