Indeed, in ST/X it is possible to write a method in C and have it
dynamically compiled an loaded into the running image. There is your
"compilation unit", albeit at a smaller level of granularity than most
are used to; the rest of the image is "runtime-engine".
I think that 10 years ago people sneared at runtime libraries over 1Mb,
now with average user software like Mozilla which include
"images/vms/runtimes/memory managers" of their own, I think that the
concept is more acceptable.
It seems to me that the acceptability criteria appears to be related to
operating system integration. If microsoft adds a vm runtime engine to
the OS, then it gains instant acceptability. Java promised the same.
Smalltalkers tend to ignore the OS for the most part, which does not
endear the faithful Microsoft Certified Professional. (But it does make
for robust code if the VM is robust... now that should have been the
killer selling point on Windows for sure!)
Again in ST/X, if you want to you can manage all of your code as source
in CVS and have it compiled and load on start up into a running
application, without an image per se. All things are possible. But who
knows about these things, not every IT professional has time to try
these things out, which is where I think the books come in. I wonder how
many armchair java programmers there are?
Keith
The image... *that* I could not fully convince them of so far. Maybe
it's my fault. If anybody has a great convincing collection of slides,
I'd love to see it. - Anyway, I have the feeling that what they
disliked most about it was that the concept of "compilation unit" or
"unit of execution" is not as definite as in, say, Java, which they
know better.
Best,
Michael
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