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(stupid question; I know nothing about smalltalk, but:) the necessity for a "fully fledged VM" doesn't seem to have slowed down Java adoption. Could you enlight

• david-given 11y ago
  The Java VM is like a virtual processor --- it lets you run an ordinary program that's written in Java bytecode. The Smalltalk VM is like a machine emulator --- it runs a complete Smalltalk system, complete with its own screen, GUI, multiple processes and concurrent programs, IDE, debugger, editor, etc, all mixed together. This typically all runs inside a single window, with its own windowing system. It's a hangover from the days when Smalltalk would run on the bare metal of a computer --- it was the entire operating system.
  • igouy 11y ago
    You seem to have confused the Smalltalk VM with the Smalltalk image. Most Smalltalk implementations have 4 pieces: - VM like the JVM - sources file - changes file - image file No it does not "typically all run inside a single window, with its own windowing system".
• sanderjd 11y ago
  Yeah, to say the same basic thing as the other commenter, but to use a different analogy, the "fully fledged VM" of Smalltalk is (or has been, in my experience) more like running a different OS in a VirtualBox window than like running a Java program. I think the JVM is a bit misleadingly named, or at least uses the VM terminology in a different way; it's really "just" an interpreter for a fairly simple assembly-ish language with a large runtime.