I have actually used PyPy , the socket bridge I had created was to make PyPy communicate with cpython embeded in the open source 3d application Blender and vice versa. I wanted to use PyPy to speed up blender cpython. Very friendly community too. AFAIK they had a Smalltalk implementation on top of PyPy but I dont think its maintained anymore.�


On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 10:27 PM, Marcus Denker <marcus.denker@inria.fr> wrote:

On 25 Nov 2013, at 21:13, kilon alios <kilon.alios@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't see a problem. Sockets provide a way to communicate, sockets nowadays are used almost everywhere. They have their limitations but its a viable , very fast and simple solution.�

Also you can use Redline Smalltalk ->�http://www.redline.st/�if you want to run smalltalk on JVM. �

I vaguely remember that Squeak had the Ometa project that was working as a converter between languages , I think Java was supported.�

Keep in mind that supporting syntax is one thing, semantics is the other� Ometa is just a (very nice) tool for making implementing a parser for syntax easier, very much like PetitParser.
I once did a very, very naive demo of adding other *syntax* to Squeak�


But the problem is that the *semantics* are still that of Smalltalk, and it�s completely not clear for the programmer where the similarity ends.

If you want to have �I can type in examples from my ruby book� compatibility, you need to implement the real semantics, which in many cases
means to re-implement the VM of that other language (in a very slow version) on top of your VM which does not really have the properties to
support those semantics.

There has been more research recently about multi-language VMs� or frameworks to build VMs (PyPy, for example). Without this support, getting 100% correct�
semantic *and* be fast enough (not even fast) is very hard.

� Marcus