thisContext

When you start the Context app, you start a webserver that provides a “console”. Viewed through a host web browser, the console describes what Context is, and enables control of the memories it knows about. The webserver also provides an active filesystem via WebDAV. This lets you interact with the console from a host terminal or text editor, in a manner reminiscent of a Unix procfs (content is generated live-on-read). Here’s a typical filesystem layout, and what you can do with it:

/
   README.html

   memories
      3EAD9A45-F65F-445F-89C1-4CA0A9D5C2F8
         session
            state
            performance
         classes
            Object
               metaclass
                  (etc.)
               methods
                  at:
                  (etc.)
               slots
                  all
                     (etc.)
                  inherited
                     (etc.)
                  local
                     (etc.)
               subclasses
                  (etc.)
         processes
            the idle process
               ProcessorScheduler class>>idleProcess
                  source
                  variables
                     thisContext
                     self
                     (etc.)
               [] in ProcessorScheduler class>>resume
               (etc.)
            (etc.)
         workspaces
            hello world
               source
               result
                  7

The README.html file is what the console displays initially. It has a directory sibling memories, containing a subdirectory for each memory the console knows about. Each memory is named by its UUID. In the session directory, there are files which give information about a memory. The state file looks like this:

# This memory is running. You can send it one of the following
# commands: snapshot, suspend, or stop. To do so, write this file with
# the desired command as the first word after this comment. Subsequent
# comments give other information about this memory, like host
# resource usage and virtual machine plugins loaded.

(type command here)

# host resource usage
#
# bytes used:        437,598
# bytes available: 1,328,467

# virtual machine plugins loaded
#
# FlowPlugin

In this way, a file in the active filesystem provides access to a read-eval-print loop (REPL). The user gives input to the console by writing the file; the console gives feedback to the user (including documentation) by generating appropriate content when the file is read.

The performance file looks like this:

# instructions per second: 382,184,269
# messages per second:      12,355,810

This gives general profiling information about the virtual machine.

The subdirectories of the classes directory correspond to the memory’s classes. Each one has subdirectories for its methods, subclasses, and metaclass. The methods directory has a file for each method of the class. This provides the ability to browse and change source code in the memory from a host text editor.

The processes directory has a subdirectory for each running process in the memory. Each process directory has a subdirectory for each context of that process. Each context directory has a REPL file for the source code of the context’s method, and a subdirectory for the context’s variables (including the context itself), each of which is an inspector in the form of a REPL file. In this way, much of the functionality of the traditional Smalltalk debugger is accessible from a host text editor.

Finally, the workspaces directory has subdirectories for multiple “workspaces”, where one may evaluate expressions and interact with their result objects. Each workspace has a source file, another REPL file which contains instructions, the expression to evaluate, and, on the next read after write, the textual form of the result. In addition, in a result directory, is a file named for the textual form of the result, containing a REPL inspector for that result object.

These tools are useful both for newcomers to live object systems who are more comfortable with a text editor than the Smalltalk GUI, and for those accessing systems running in the cloud, for which traditional GUI access might be awkward or prohibitive.