Self-interest August 2004

self-interest@lists.selflanguage.org

5 participants
5 discussions

Adding method slots dynamically
by oscar_lopez_p 16 Aug '05

16 Aug '05

Hello, How can I add dynamically a method slot to a self object? . I have: the method selector, the argument names and the body (source code) of a method, and I need (at runtime) to create a method from them and add it to an existing object. Thanks for the help, Oscar Lopez

3 3

Performance?
by Michael Latta 19 Oct '04

19 Oct '04

The Squeak list has postings for bytecodes/sec and sends/sec. Are similar figures avaialble for self? Is there a benchmark that can be run to get similar figures? I would be interested in knowing the relative performance of the two systems. Squeak seems to be running > 1000 cycles / bytecode. This seems quite high compared to the techniques used in the Self compiler, even with GC and compiler overhead. Michael

6 12

Modifying Software
by Jack Waugh 03 Sep '04

03 Sep '04

I beg the group to forgive a question from someone with no experience with Self. My question concerns the effects of modifying a Self image while there are data in it. In Smalltalk, you can have a population of instances of some class in your image, and if you modify the class, the instances change their behavior accordingly. Self has no classes, and I suppose most programmnig modification is done by changing slots in the Lobby or by changing the objects (usually prototypes) to which those Lobby slots refer. So in Self, and in the actual practice of typical Self programmers, and with the support of typical Self programming environments, is there any way to modify software so that many existing objects change their behavior to reflect the modification?

5 8

[ANN] Slate 0.3 Released!
by Brian T. Rice 08 Aug '04

08 Aug '04

Hello everyone, After much debugging and tweaking and testing and polishing, we're declaring Slate as ready for release as 0.3, our first public fully-bootstrapped system. This is a big step for us, and marks a critical point in the lifespan of the project. Slate, for those not aware, is a Smalltalk/Self dialect and environment based on semantic extensions to Smalltalk-80 while retaining the human-friendly syntax. Slate is primarily based on the choices of combining the flexibility of object-specific behavior and expressiveness of multi-method dispatch into one coherent form. The environment heavily borrows many good ideas from other systems, focusing on integration of things long experimental into one coherent whole. Slate is intended to be useful in every role that Squeak and Self are, and to push the boundaries farther in the areas of dynamic media and interactivity and flexibility. These will take time to demonstrate, as the environment is currently still based on console interaction, but the framework is already in place for forward progress. Slate's website is http://slate.tunes.org/ Here is a summary of what's new: Slate is now virtual-machine-based using a self-generated set of sources which are idiomatic and efficient. The VM is generated through a build process and translation layer which are designed for easy extension, composition, and integration. The VM loads images which can be built declaratively through a from-scratch build process we have developed and can be re-used and modified as needed. Images may also be saved while running, and reloaded to continue from that run-time point. Much of the work involved in 0.3 has gone towards ensuring that this new environment is effectively bug-free and robust, and has succeeded for all the ways the libraries use it. Relatively simple optimizations have been added to improve performance, and have had the effect of nearly-entirely removing the overhead of the powerful but complicated dispatch mechanism, and making Slate comparable with other similar languages for basic work. Nearly every library in the system has been given a full test treatment, and debugged and polished thoroughly. The fixes and enhancements cover everything from the C-code generator to streaming and external resources. Some features have been delayed in their introduction to the new environment, particularly subjective dispatch, graphics backends, and socket support, but these will be available soon in subsequent sub-point releases along with other important features. Slate 0.3 is released at http://slate.tunes.org/downloads/slate-0.3.tgz The distribution contains the full set of our repository's source, initial VM C sources and images, and copies of the programmer's manual in HTML, PostScript, and PDF formats. The included README file provides details on how to use it. Enjoy! Brian Rice

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new thesis using Self
by Jecel Assumpcao Jr 08 Aug '04

08 Aug '04

Reinaldo Silveira will be defending his PhD thesis in a week or so. The title is "DIRETRIZES PARA UMA NOVA METODOLOGIA DE PROJETO DIGITAL" ("Directions for a New Method for Digital Design"). Here is a page with a short description of the work: http://www.lsi.usp.br/~silveira/selfhdl.php And here is a more detailed abstract from the thesis -------------- This work presents a new methodology for digital design, called "Designer Oriented Methodology" (DO). The main idea behind the DO methodology is to make the computational tools closer to the domain of application. This is done by eliminating, from the design flow, tasks and concepts strange or superfluous to the final user. This methodology uses especially designed computer tools to avoid or hide unwanted aspects of the design from the user (hardware designer), The design process should interact with the system in a way that the designer's attention should be totally focused on the subject of his/hers work, as much as possible. Like a player and his game are involved and absorbed by the reality of the game. To demonstrate the methodology, it is presented the system SelfHDL which is a hardware description language written in the programming language Self. SelfHDL uses graphical and textual elements to elaborate a description of a digital system, that is extremely simple to be understood allowing its use as didactic support system for the education aid of digital systems. The described system can also be simulated in interactive mode, through a virtual environment where the described system is emulated, being able to interact with the user or the computer environment that surrounds it, as the real hardware would. Being implemented in Self, means that the SelfHDL system does not need to be compiled, so any modfication has immediate effect as if the system were interpreted. This work presents the implementation of SelfHDL and its use in an example project. The SelfHDL implementation of the DLX architecture is used as the example project. We compare two traditional DLX designs made in VHDL with the SelfHDL description and discuss the the advantages of the new system. We will see that this new form is very intuitive for designers, normally used to deal with graphic models of the elements of their domain and whose spirit normally is educated in experimentation and manipulation. The SelfHDL system is a propitious environment where the designers can evaluate many alternatives for their projects under development. Finally, we conclude the work speaking of the potentialities of the new system and the future works we intend to dedicate or advise as a new research field in order to extend the system and to make it more powerful. ------------- I think Reinaldo has done a great job of capturing the spirit of Self and Morphic in this application. Congratulations! -- Jecel

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Self-interest August 2004