1984/01/01 by L. Peter Deutsch, Allan M. Schiffman · 1 citation
Computer Science · #Algorithms and Data Compression #Parallel Computing and Optimization Techniques #Advanced Data Storage Technologies #Smalltalk #Computer science #Software portability #Programming language #Implementation #Object-oriented programming #Programming language implementation #Programming paradigm #Programming domain #Inductive programming
paper · doi:10.1145/800017.800542
openalex publication_date 1984/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The Smalltalk-80* programming language includes dynamic storage allocation, full upward funargs, and universally polymorphic procedures; the Smalltalk-80 programming system features interactive execution with incremental compilation, and implementation portability. These features of modern programming systems are among the most difficult to implement efficiently, even individually. A new implementation of the Smalltalk-80 system, hosted on a small microprocessor-based computer, achieves high performance while retaining complete (object code) compatibility with existing implementations. This paper discusses the most significant optimization techniques developed over the course of the project, many of which are applicable to other languages. The key idea is to represent certain runtime state (both code and data) in more than one form, and to convert between forms when needed.