[lively-kernel] image persistence

[David Paola]

Hi lively kernel folks,

I've spent the past month or so digging around in several language VMs -- CPython, Rubinius, Topaz, Pypy, etc in an attempt to add the equivalent of the original Smalltalk "snapshot" VM primitive. Obviously I have been naive.

I've learned a lot, above all else that I'm not giving up. I have a decent, academic understanding of compilers, interpreters, VMs (and a foggy understanding of JITs), and was curious if anyone could clarify how the lively kernel serializes the world into JSON. Was this hairy? What were the hardest parts?

I realize everyone has a full time job and can't hand-hold a newbie, so any direction at all would be appreciated. I tried to pick apart the Squeak source code but without a background in the Squeak architecture, it was fruitless.

Thanks so much for your energy on lively kernel, I'm looking forward to hearing more and possibly contributing in the future.

-dave

More info:

I realize that the "high level" idea of snapshotting a running VM basically involves serializing the object memory, bytecode, and instruction pointer, and then deserializing that on "resume". Most of the issues I'm encountering lead me to believe I have an incomplete understanding.

--
Dave Paola