On Wed, Jan 02, 2013 at 05:26:25PM -0800, tim Rowledge wrote:
On 02-01-2013, at 4:15 PM, "David T. Lewis" <lewis@mail.msen.com> wrote:
Do you have a reference to the sensible compiled method format? I think I recall some discussions on that topic, but I don't recall when or by whom.
I was thinking of the now-ancient 'NewCompiledMethod', going back to about 1997. The last I heard on the subject was about 5 years ago.
Ah, right, it's all coming back to me now. Thanks.
But..
But really, what are we missing? We have CompiledMethodTrailer that appears to provide an infinitely extensible mechanism for inventing new kinds of source pointers.
? it reads as if that might provide the same result. Namely having the source pointer for each method be a proper oop, with all the obvious advantages over a weirdly encrypted 24bit number hidden within some bytes at the end of a byte array
In principle, I think yes. Igor Stasenko created the CompiledMethodTrailer, which has provided a really nice way to keep the existing formats working while allowing all sorts of extensions. I'm not sure if he had in mind to implement source pointers as first class objects, but it seems like it would be a straightforward extension. Cross posting to pharo in order to lure Igor back into the discussion ;-) Dave