Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!spar!pplace!dean
From: dean@pplace.COM (Dean Ritz)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Smalltalk-80 Facts
Message-ID: <364@parcplace.pplace.COM>
Date: 23 Sep 88 23:55:43 GMT
Reply-To: dean@pplace ()
Organization: ParcPlace Systems, Palo Alto CA
Lines: 30

Hello Comp.lang.smalltalk,

We at ParcPlace Systems enjoy reading all the recent net activity
regarding the Smalltalk-80 system.  We'd like to take this opportunity
to correct two incorrect statements about the ParcPlace Smalltalk-80
system which have appeared both recently and in the past.

1) While it is true that most Smalltalk-80 systems "use byte-code 
interpretation," the Smalltalk-80 systems produced by ParcPlace Systems 
compile to and execute native code.  They are built upon innovative 
compiler technology, called "dynamic translation."  In brief, we use a two 
stage compiler which compiles from source text to byte-code, and then from 
byte-code to native code (which is saved in a cache and executed as needed).  
This technology enables Smalltalk-80 to have the compactness and portability 
of byte-codes, and significantly better performance than interpretion technology
permits.  For technical background, see the paper by Deutsch and Schiffman in
the proceedings of the 1984 POPL conference.

2) The second incorrect statement is that "ParcPlace Systems shows little interest 
in [linking to assembly/C/C++ code]".  Our current releases on the Apple 
Macintosh, Sun-3, Sun-4, Sun386i, HP-9000, Compaq DeskPro 386, IBM PS/2-70,
and Apollo workstations supports user defined primitives.  These
enable the integration of routines written in common languages like C.

Best Regards to all,

     Dean Ritz
     ParcPlace Systems
     E-mail:  Info@ParcPlace.com
     Phone:  415.859.1000