Pharo 9

Post by blacklion » Sun, Jul 18, 2021, 12:03 PM UTC

d-mason wrote: post #227

blacklion wrote: post #101

I wonder, how hard is it to bootstrap Pharo on new platform...

Pharo, like its siblings Cuis, Squeak, and NewSpeak runs on a VM called Open Smalltalk. It is written in a stylized version of Smalltalk so can be debugged with the tandard Smalltalk tools (i.e. you can have the modified VM you're working on load and run an image - but your VM is running in a debugger!) Then when you're happy with your revised VM, you can spit out portable C code, compile it, and BAM you've got a pro…

Are here any documents how to start?

For example, Pharo github repo doesn't have any C code at all, and to build it I need Pharo VM already running. It is Ok for building new version for existing platform, but what should I do if I want to build VM for other platform (OS)? Hardware platform is supported already, so, I think, I don't need to have new assembler / JIT / Whatever, but I need new glue to new libc, kernel, etc., and new executable file format, am I right?

Post by cmrdporcupine » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

bigbizisverywyz wrote: post #219

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From 1980 to the late 80s or so people were struggling just to get Smalltalk to perform at reasonable speeds on microcomputer class hardware, so saying 1980 isn't really fair. And most of the research that went into getting Smalltalk (and Self) to perform well on those platforms was then used to get Java to perform. In actuality, Smalltalk gave Java a headstart. That said, Smalltalk just doesn't in general "play well…

>people were struggling just to get Smalltalk to perform at reasonable speeds on microcomputer class hardware I've heard this before, but it confuses me as apparently the majority of the systems at Xerox Parc (Window manager, word processor, etc. ) were written in Smalltalk. So how could these sophisticated GUI apps perform there but not on other platforms, was the hardware really so different?

Yes, they were drastically different. Xerox built their own systems. Look up the Dolphin and Alto, they were basically minicomputer-class systems with custom CPUs built out of 74 series and bitslice components, no single-chip microprocessor. And very expensive.

It wasn't until the mid to late 80s that microprocessor systems built around the 68k series were able to run Smalltalk 80 well. And that was with Tektronix and others spending thousands of man hours developing techniques to implement the VM well. And many of those systems were still basically dedicated to Smalltalk and cost a fortune.

Re: Pharo 9

Re: Pharo 9