[self-interest] VM plug-in (was: JSelf Home Page)

[Jecel Assumpcao Jr]

Steve Dekorte wrote:
> 
> Doesn't Java count as Java a "huge plug-in"? :-)

Very true, technically. But it feels very different since it comes
in the same download or CD-ROM as the browser itself. Another
difference is that it is included in all ports of the browser, while
a lot of plug-ins are Win32 or Mac only.

> I know Netscape is moving it to the plug-in side, at least.
> And Java is certainly huge in size and complexity.

A great opportunity for Self or Squeak!

> I don't see how mapping Self like language to Java byte codes
> is possible,

There are easy (but slow) ways and there are hard (but a little
less slow) ways to do it. Many people have asked me to do this
over the years, so I looked into it.

> but even if it where, wouldn't it be better to
> write a small, fast VM and stick it inside an Active-X control
> for Netscape and a COM object for IE?

Why not a plug-in? Aren't the solutions you propose Win32-only? At
least Netscape has made loading plug-ins a lot more automatic than
it used to be.

One problem with a Self or Smalltalk VM plug-in is that it needs
a rather complete image to work with (see Dolphin Smalltalk for
an example). What we need is a way to split up the image into
tiny pieces that can be loaded on demand.

-- Jecel


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