[self-interest] StrongTalk combined with Self?

[Jonas Bosson]

Gilad Bracha wrote:
> We did experiment with using type information for performance in one 
> area - floating point arithmetic. You can get around 60% of optimized C 
> speed on certain floating point codes, using types as a hint to the JIT, 
> which then verifies the type information and optimizes based on it, 
> stictly intra- (not inter-)procedurally. 

Yep, that was my idea, but using the extra typinfo could also do VM 
optimizations on a interprocedural level, and as such bridge the gap 
to.. say java classes. I felt that the Strong talk idea is cool because 
enables optional typing as a special case in a VM, like a seamless 
bridge to the typed and word-size industry world.

> Check out the Mandelbrot demo in the Strong talk release to see an example.
Wine (windows emulator) seems to handle it fine just up until I start 
the mandel-app: err:local:LOCAL_GetBlock not enough space in GDI heap 
0147 for 136 bytes. But I trust your word for it. ;-)

I feel quite restrained in using java, but then have to. I have tried to 
make it bearable by building a small GUI-Lobby, shared VM (know the 
limits) and runtime evaluator (using the class loader). This however is 
far from the practical gains of prototyping and I often find myself 
starting the ol'Self demo to find comfort in that there might be a 
revolution rather than just slow evolution out there.

I have long played with the idea to use Self as the development platform 
for java apps, and combine changing live classes in java by modifying 
slots. I know this is a ugly round trip in a Self perspective, but in 
comparison with todays java-IDE-world, it would be a blessing. It would 
require a well integrated concept for types, at least in the IDE. This 
method could be used to produce .net, c, etc too, all in the native 
language but with fragments of the prototype runtime experience.

If one can't sell prototyping directly in industry apps,
one could at least make use of it in development. ;-)
Any such projects out there perhaps?

/Jonas Bosson