On 9/26/07, Keith Hodges <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This rather "gnarly" self modifying approach is common to most > monticellos it is not exclusive to 3.10.
In fact, it is common to most code loading systems in Smalltalk (all Smalltalks, not just Squeak), not just Monticello. Spoon is one of the exceptions, and there could be others. The problem is that all Smalltalk code runs in the same image. Thus, code loading code runs in the same image as the code that it is loading. This makes it very easy to develop programming tools like the browser, but it makes it hard to work on these code loading tools once they become widely used. For example, if you change the compiler and you break something, your image is destroyed. You can't run the compiler to fix the compiler. If you break the windowing system then you might prevent popping up a debugger to fix it. That is why the NewCompiler folks didn't call it Compiler, and why Keith made new classes for Monticello 1.5. Making a new system lets you use the old while you are working on the old. But small changes to the old might conflict with each other. -Ralph _______________________________________________ V3dot10 mailing list [email protected] http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/v3dot10
