I have some questions on how to proceed at the bottom of this post.
In the host simulation environment, one cannot interact with the running simulation using the standard Morphic "event chain".
One cannot do so because from the host environment, there is no World in the simulation; there is only a painted picture of a World. The key to seeing this is to grok what a running simulation actually is.
StackInterpreterSimulator >> run
"..simulation setup code.."
[true] whileTrue: [self assertValidExecutionPointers. atEachStepBlock value. "N.B. may be nil" self dispatchOn: currentBytecode in: BytecodeTable. self incrementByteCount].
"..we never get here..."
There is no 'hook' for me to chain the Morphic event's down into, there are only bytecodes being fetched and executed . (which is totally cool and awesome, btw).
Those bytecodes paint a pretty picture on an ImageMorph placed on a Frame placed within a SystemWindow as seen here in
StackInterpreterSimulater >> openAsMorph
"...."
window addMorph: (displayView := ImageMorph new image: displayForm) frame: (0@0 corner: 1@0.8).
"...."
That image is not a PasteUpMorph named TheWorld that can respond to events--it is just a pretty picture.
That ladies and gentleman is the point where us fat and coddled coder Hobbit's have to enter the dragon's cave, leaving the comfortable environment of the Squeak API for whatever strange and dangerous world lies below; Me? I decided to post here instead before venturing in (:
So, having learned this the hard way, there are a couple of strategies I could take--RFB, or maybe Nebraska-- to get events over to the target image but before doing that I have to ask is it really necessary?
My goal is to port the StackInterpeter to native 64 (and after that 64x64). Presumably Eliot managed to do the original work without the use of direct interaction with morphic on the running world, so shouldn't my task now be to emulate whatever techiques Eliot uses?
If so, that raises the final point. What exactly are those techniques? Specifically, given a running simulation, how does one produce a new VM? Do we boot up the target image on which we have developed and run VMMaker the standard way?
Finally, direct interaction with the runnig simulation world is desirable, I will be happy to implement it. Just please inform me of what strategy you would prefer and I will try to get it done.
Thank you for your time.