[self-interest] Re: self-interest digest

[Mario Wolczko]

> But for the user objects, those that don't play a special role in
> implementing the language definition, the root is still the lobby. Am I right?

All those objects are roots, but most -- the lobby being the obvious
exception -- don't have references to user objects.

> If one performs the destructive process I did, of removing all slots from the lobby,
> theoretically, one should end with a useless world because nothing could be typed in the
> prompt, besides self, that would match any slot in any accessible object. But with
> primitives one can reconstruct everything (at least from the initial empty world) by
> recovering objects from the objectIDArray.

The array is there purely for convenience.  Try setting it to zero
size (using 0 _NumObjectIDs) and then try to your experiment again.

You can also reconstruct slots and valuse using primitives
(_AddSlots:, etc), so the empty world is not totally useless (indeed,
this is how we bootstrap the world).  Try starting the VM without a
snapshot!

> I have noticed that between sessions the IDs assigned to an object are not fixed and
> unique, for example, when I open Self with the empty world and type self at the prompt,
> the lobby is assigned ID <0>. However, if I type some expression that evaluates to an
> error, the <0> ID is assigned to the process object and lobby gets ID <1>.

It's modelled on the history list of csh.

-Mario

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