>enough information to replicate the image from scratch... Smalltalk's images didn't really have this feature<
Code changes in ST-80 (the Smalltalk made public in 1980) were automatically logged outside the image. There were (at least) 3 files:
- the original source code provided with the implementation (.sou)
- the replayable log of changes since the sources file was made (.cha)
- the compiled bytecode and objects that make up the current state of the program (.im)
The most basic approach to re-building was to take the vanilla sources file and vanilla image file provided by the vendor, and "fileIn" the changes you'd made from the change log.
And then there were change sets.
And later, a fine-grain method-level VCS database.
iirc JPMorgan had 4 people employed just as code-librarians to work on code-reuse across their Smalltalk projects.
It's kind of funny that the closest thing to Smalltalk images in wide use are the world most popular object oriented programs: spreadsheet documents (and to an extent ms word documents).
Code changes in ST-80 (the Smalltalk made public in 1980) were automatically logged outside the image. There were (at least) 3 files:
- the original source code provided with the implementation (.sou)
- the replayable log of changes since the sources file was made (.cha)
- the compiled bytecode and objects that make up the current state of the program (.im)
The most basic approach to re-building was to take the vanilla sources file and vanilla image file provided by the vendor, and "fileIn" the changes you'd made from the change log.
And then there were change sets.
And later, a fine-grain method-level VCS database.
iirc JPMorgan had 4 people employed just as code-librarians to work on code-reuse across their Smalltalk projects.