> image is not recreated from scratch every time and it is more than just a cache
Yes, some vm & image & sources & changes can be taken as the base implementation for development purposes -- a persistent cache.
The state of whatever IDE tools were in use will be saved -- is that what makes you say "more than just a cache"? If I sleep a windows desktop is that more than just a cache?
> changes first happen in an image
What if I write a plain-text source code file using Notepad, and use Smalltalk file handling and byte code compilation and command-line argument handling (packaged in the image) to write the result of a computation to stdout (and quit the image without saving)?
> image is not recreated from scratch every time and it is more than just a cache
Yes, some vm & image & sources & changes can be taken as the base implementation for development purposes -- a persistent cache.
The state of whatever IDE tools were in use will be saved -- is that what makes you say "more than just a cache"? If I sleep a windows desktop is that more than just a cache?
> changes first happen in an image
What if I write a plain-text source code file using Notepad, and use Smalltalk file handling and byte code compilation and command-line argument handling (packaged in the image) to write the result of a computation to stdout (and quit the image without saving)?