Not sure what a good title would be, but
I would like to attend a conference title:
"Virtual Image -based Software Development"
Cloud-Computing is much about having "virtual images"
that allow your whole production environment to be
easily moved from server to server.
A unique feature of Smalltalk is that it
allows a virtual-image-based IDE to be
easily "stripped" to become the production
run-time image. The image-based approach
of Smalltalk would seem to be an ideal fit
to Cloud Computing because the ST-image
is easy to move around - easier than the
"image" of a whole OS.
In Smalltalk you don't just develop an
"application". You develop a "virtual
computer" that does nothing but runs your
application.
And because it is a "running virtual computer"
it can easily be moved from server to others
as needed.
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EXAMPLE:
Your server-application Smalltalk image is running
on a small server in the data-center. The STATE
of each session is kept within the image but
committed user-data is persisted to a database.
As the traffic increases a copy of the image is
started to run on a bigger Virtual OS and most
of the traffic is redirected there. When the
peak is over all of the traffic can again be
directed to the smaller machine.
This scenario differs from the typical Amazon-EC
or Google-Cloud -approach in that you don't have
to migrate a whole OS to the bigger machine. It
is enough to move the same (relatively small)
Smalltalk application image to the bigger
machine.
Something similar can be implemented with other
languages of course but probably not as easily.
My point is that Cloud Computing and Smalltalk
Virtual Image -based programming should be a natural
fit.
POINT: If VIs (Virtual Images) are good for
deployment in the Cloud, being able to treat
your application as a VI must be even better,
its smaller granularity bringing more agility
for moving the software-service from machine
to machine on the cloud.
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As far as I know Smalltalk currently is the
only environment that takes the image-based
approach to software-development seriously.
JAVA has a virtual machine, but it doesn't
have a way to save the state of it onto disk.
Neither does C#, Ruby, Python, Scala, or
what have you?
It would be interesting to have a panel
discussion in the conference about
pro vs. con of "image-based programming"
for Cloud-based deployment.
-Panu Viljamaa
Post by wembleyThe STIC Board has decided to organize Smalltalk Solutions 2011 in Las
Vegas from Sunday March 13 to Wednesday March 16, 2011.
This time, one of our goals is to attract strangers, i.e. non-
Smalltalks to our conference. Thus we are looking for an attractive
sub title. Buzz words which popped into our minds are Cloud and
Dynamic Languages. Thus we start a call for subtitle today. Please
Board of Directors shall vote on the subtitle. We will also run a
drawing amoung all submissions to win three prices: 10%, 5%, and 3%
discount off the admission fee.
I am looking for a great Smalltalk Solutions 2011.
Mark you calendar!
John O'Keefe [|], Instantiations Inc.