Re: load and use a ".o" file?

[lifetime n00b <anonymous@yahoo.com>]

Mark H Johnson wrote:
>  - call xyz (dispatched to an activation function)
>  - the activation function checks first the active segments for a symbol 
> within them called xyz. If found, it fixes up the dispatch to go 
> directly to that xyz and resumes execution.
>  - if not in an active segment, it uses the search path (similar to PATH 
> on Unix) to find a file named xyz. If found, it loads that file into a 
> segment, makes it active, and does the work of the second step.
>  - if no such file is found, it calls the command line interpreter with 
> an error status. 

This actually sounds a lot like using a distributed system (Annex E) 
with both active and passive partitions on the same local machine, 
though probably more efficient.


> The subsequent calls to xyz is done just like any other cross segment 
> function call, basically running at (or near) full speed. It is this 
> part that eliminates most of the concerns about performance since the 
> expensive look up is only done once per symbol.

Unfortunately, I won't be programming this for Multics. I may need to 
suck it up and just do some benchmarks using the Annex E method. Passing 
data, arguments, and return values along streams between paritions just 
to call a function sure seems like a huge performance drain, but maybe 
in practice it's not as bad as I imagine.

> If you get this to work, I'd like to hear about it.

Me too! :)