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stic12

Gemstone Futures

March 20, 2012 10:59:32.362

Norm Green is explaining what's going on with Gemstone - 2.4.5.1 is the next (minor) release, with all of the big stuff happening in the 3.x version stream (which is where all future work is happening). It has a JIT, an FFI interface (obviating the need to hook in at a low C level). Martin McClure presented that at last year's ESUG. I'd provide a link, but I can't find it in the playlist.

Gemstone is now multi-threaded, and each thread (OS thread) uses a GS session. You get a fair bit of control over how aggressive you want that to be.

Smalltalk changes - arrays are constructed (runtime) with curly braces, in line with Pharo (and VW with extensions). ANSI exceptions now standard, old stuff deprecated.

There's a few metaclass level changes due to MagLev work - should be transparent. The upgrade should be easier than the last few, but Smalltalk code does need to be filed in (there are byte code changes).

The next major release - 3.1 - should ship mid June, 2012

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posted by James Robertson

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