On 11/14/2011 6:05 PM, Stefan Reich wrote:
Hi earthlings =)
OK, so I want to get very serious with this Mobile Lua idea now.
The execution core works. Hyperjumps work. Admin interface is
functional too. (All in the next release.)
So it is time for some heavy duty marketing.
Here's what I know:
I know that the Mobile Lua concept is both innovative and sound; I
know that the applications are boundless; and I pretty darn sure
know that it is going to catch on pretty quickly.
What I am now looking for is a way to convince people of the
advantages of code mobility.
Maybe you guys can help me out a little here.
For starters, I took a look at the list of the most popular
programming languages and checked if they offer mobility. Here's
the result (most popular languages listed first):
Language
Mobility
-------------------------
C
not mobile
Java
only in browser; not transitive
C++
not mobile
PHP
not mobile
_javascript_
only in browser; not transitive
Python
not mobile
C#
not mobile
Perl
not mobile
SQL
not mobile
Ruby
not mobile
Shell
not mobile
Visual Basic
only in browser (VBS); not transitive
Assembly
not mobile
ActionScript
only in browser; not transitive
Objective C
not mobile
Lisp
not mobile
Delphi
not mobile
Pascal
not mobile
Scheme
not mobile
Haskell
not mobile
Tcl
not mobile
Fortran
not mobile
Ada
not mobile
Lua
full transitive mobility (as Mobile Lua)
"Mobility", here, is defined as the ability of any program to move
to another computer at any time while preserving its full inner
state (code+data+threads). (Outside connections, naturally, may
have to be recreated after moving.)
"Transitive mobility", then, is defined as the ability to move
between computers more than once per script invocation.
(Note: There may be mobile agent frameworks for multiple languages
listed above; but if they exist, they don't seem to be in
widespread use. So it seems they are either too complicated, too
heavy-weight or not practically usable for other reasons. I am
very open for counterexamples if there are any!)
So it seems that Lua, with the advent of Mobile Lua, is now the
only popular language offering full code mobility.
Question is: Are people aware of the advantages of code mobility?
Are you aware? If not, what would it need for you to understand
these advantages?
I have different ideas on how to demonstrate the possibilities of
a mobile Lua - but I thought I'd check with you guys first to see
if you have anything to say on this. I really hope that this list
will prove a positive place and not one of "I want to criticize so
I can bring you down".
-- Stefan
PS: Of course, the primary question for any new technology always
is: Can it do porn? =) (I'll leave the answer to the readers, for
now. =)
I don't know if this qualifies for what your trying to do or not
but, you don't mention Smalltalk. :)
Smalltalk is different from all of the languages mentioned. All code
is loaded into a running system. Code is updated, edited, modified
live.
One interesting project for Pharo Smalltalk is Fuel. Fuel is an
object serializer. It can serialize running code that has opened a
debugger window. Open the serialized code in a new image and
continue debugging the running code.
http://www.pharo-project.org/
http://rmod.lille.inria.fr/web/pier/software/Fuel
I don't know if either Smalltalk or Fuel are doing what you are
looking at doing. But take a look and see what they are doing and
may find some body going the same direction or may some interesting
ideas.
Jimmie
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