[comp.lang.smalltalk] Need Info On Smalltalk Byte Code Interpreter...

heins@hpdml93.HP.COM (Doug Heins) (02/09/90)

Does anyone out in netland have any idea where I might find 
detailed references or articles that describes the Smalltalk
byte code interpreter, the stack structure, details of the
internal workings, and etc. ?  Any information would be 
greatly appreciated !  Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Doug Heins
dheins@hpbsl88.boi.hp.com
...!hplabs!hpcea!hpbsla!hpbsl88!dheins

 

peter@celia.UUCP (Peter Farson) (02/20/90)

In article <17350001@hpdml93.HP.COM> heins@hpdml93.HP.COM (Doug Heins) writes:
>
>Does anyone out in netland have any idea where I might find 
>detailed references or articles that describes the Smalltalk
>byte code interpreter, the stack structure, details of the
>internal workings, and etc. ?  Any information would be 
>greatly appreciated !  Thanks in advance.
>

  I recommend a book by Timothy Budd, "A Little Smalltalk", published by
Addison Wesley.  This guy and his students at the U of Oregon developed
a non-standard, stripped down version of Smalltalk.  The book has two
sections: part 1 describes the language as such and part 2 describes the
implementation.  The second part has a lot of very useful information for
those who want to understand the inner working of Smalltalk and are maybe
even interested in writing their own implementation (as I am).  Little
Smalltalk is written in C, and part 2 describes in detail the C source
code for the data structures and programs, and has some listings of
these.  I don't agree with every implementation decision made with this
system, but in general I think it is well designed.  I personally want
to develop a Smalltalk system that is more like Parc Place and
Digitalk Smalltalk in the language's syntax/semantics, in how object
instance variables are managed in memory, and in the class hierarchy.


-- 
  The flesh of animals who feed            | Peter Farson - Rhythm & Hues, Inc.
 excursively is allowed to have            | celia!peter@usc.edu
  a higher flavour than that of            | celia!peter@tis.llnl.gov
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