Whither SmallScript? (was Re: Integer micro-benchmarks)

[David Simmons]

"Steve Wart" <swart at deadspam.com> wrote in message
news:HbVF6.101237$166.1901289 at news1.rdc1.bc.home.com...
>
> "David Simmons" <pulsar at qks.com> wrote in message ...
> > "Steve Wart" <swart at deadspam.com> wrote ...
> > > 1.2GHz Athlon, Win2K SP2, 512Mb RAM -> David
> > > 333 PII, Win2K SP1, 192Mb RAM -> Steve
> > > [I gotta get in Redmond's good books :)]
> >
> > That's not how I got the machine if that's what you're thinking.
> >
> Sorry if it came across the wrong way -- it was just a joke. My machine is
> just over 3 years old now. But I wanna G4 :)

Oh geez, no need to apologize. But given this is a public venue, I want to
minimize the likelyhood that communications get distorted. Of late, a few
reported or re-discussed items have been unintentionally mis-stated in some
web sites, postings, and discussions that are circulating.

At this stage I have worked at keeping the activity as low (bandwidth) key
as possible while maintaining a necessary visible presence in certain key
areas. You can expect that pattern to remain until various pieces are
available for public review.

As to a G4...
I also use a dual 500MHz G4 for the PPC MacOSX work. I am an old hardcore
Mac developer -- its where our Smalltalk began its life. However, sad but
true, at this point in time I'll take my Win2K box with an AMD Duron chipset
anyday.

>
> > > Does SmallScript come with AOS?
> >
> > Yes. Both the SmallScript compiler and a corresponding execution engine
> (the
> > core AOS Platform VM) will be free.
> >
> > The SmallScript compiler and scripting/dynamic language support
libraries
> > for the Microsoft.NET Platform will not be free. As to other frameworks,
> > tools, etc -- that will be determined on a case by case basis.
>
> So I can use SmallScript for free if I don't care about calling .NET
> services? Which platforms are you planning to support with the AOS
> VM/SmallScript? Mac/Linux/Windows at least?

Free Base System: x86 Win32 platforms, x86 Linux and FreeBSD, MacOSX PPC.

Paid Base System: Microsoft.NET Tools and Platform Support

Others are always possible (and desired) at some future point.

>
> > The AOS Platform is a quasi language independent
> > object-model/virtual-machine which is now in its 4th major generation
> since
> > I first designed it back at the end of 1990. That design was derived
> > (extensively influenced) from work I did on C based (vm) object systems
> > beginning back in 1986.
>
> What do you mean by "quasi language independent" -- that it supports
> SmallScript and the "convential" AOS Smalltalk? Will it support python,
for
> example?

This 4th generation of the AOS Platform has been developed and tested for
dynamic (and dynamically typed) languages and is geared as an adaptive
virtual machine jitting model. Specific work has not been done, in this
generation, for implementing a particular statically typed (compiled)
language. The object model and internal architecture are designed with such
languages in mind. But, there are areas in the architecture that have not
been fleshed out and validated. So, it is really wrong to declare it as a
generic language independent UVM.

As to Python specifically, I want to stress that work is currently focused
on delivering the .NET, PPC, and x86 platform versions. The SmallScript
language layer and related general compiler frameworks are basically
completed and have been for some time.

The compiler architecture and SmallScript language design has, from its
inception, been geared for enabling hi-performance support of a variety of
Scripting languages. Out of the dirth of scripting languages available,
Python and PHP are at the top of our well-known candidate list. There are
parties who have either expressed an interest in or are working on languages
such as Scheme, JScript, and Basic.

Once the other pieces are in place, more attention will be focused on work
in Python and PHP. Reality dictates that direct compilation/execution
support for Java and C# are also worthy of serious consideration at some
stage.

As an aside, the execution performance numbers for SmallScript/Smalltalk are
directly indicative of the level of performance one could expect for Python
or PHP on the same platform.

>
> Steve (swart at bigserver dot com) -- .sig in progress
> http://www.visualknowledge.com

-- Dave S.