Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!torn!nott!cunews!dbuck
From: dbuck@superior.carleton.ca (Dave Buck)
Subject: Re: Future of 16-bit and 32-bit Smalltak/V's?
Message-ID: <CwpMtF.Moz@cunews.carleton.ca>
Sender: news@cunews.carleton.ca (News Administrator)
Organization: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
References: <m0qnpV9-000BqGC@nextsrv1.andi.org> <tms-220994132918@stambaugh.tiac.net> <CwJvnC.B4D@cunews.carleton.ca> <3652a1$cir@jupiter.netdepot.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 00:03:15 GMT
Lines: 37

In article <3652a1$cir@jupiter.netdepot.com>,
Les Dunaway <ldunaway@netdepot.com> wrote:
>>David Buck (dbuck@ccs.carleton.ca) wrote:
>>
>>This may be true, but VisualAge and IBM Smalltalk don't perform
>>dynamic compilation, so comparing the memory requirements is like
>>comparing apples to oranges.
>>
>
>I'd REALLY like to understand the statement about "dynamic compilation"????
>What is IBM doing different from Digitalk - deep down in the VM?
>
>Les
>


Digitalk's Smalltalk/V and ParcPlace's VisualWorks both compile the
Smalltalk source to bytecodes.  The first time the bytecodes are
interpreted, the native code for the method is cached for later use.
When the method is called again later, it can run faster because it
can run the native code directly instead of running the interpreter to
interpret the byte codes.

I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that IBM Smalltalk doesn't do this
at this time.  They may implement this in the future, I'm not sure.
In any case, the native code does take up space in RAM.


David Buck
dbuck@ccs.carleton.ca

_____________________________________________________________________
| David K. Buck                 | My employer is not responsible for|
| dbuck@ccs.carleton.ca         | my opinions.  In fact, they don't |
| Original author of DKBTrace   | even know I have this account.    |
|_______________________________|___________________________________|
 
