> try this (printIt) in a workspace (beware, it will not return and may
> hang the system for good):
> [1 + 1] storeString

Not at all surprising in the current system (assuming a 37-5989-full 
image) since this will effectively try to make a store string of the 
entire image. In fact it's almost a oneline definition of how to do a 
garbage collect mark-phase i.e. start at the current context and mark 
everything you can touch, recursivley.

To see for yourself what happens, try [1+1] halt storeString and 
follow it through for a while. You'll see as it follows up the sender 
chain throught Processes and the ProcessorScheduler, wanders around 
the compiled methods, up the class and metaclasses chains, and across 
hill and down dale. If you have the patience (and nothing really 
useful to do) it will be quite an education.

The interesting question is what one would actually want to be written 
out. Where exactly should it stop? Perhaps at any global in the belief 
that a reference to (Smalltalk at:#Foo) is enough. How about the 
sender chain - how much of that should be captured and what about the 
compiledmethods encountered along the way? I had to come up with a 
plausible solution some years ago for database usage in a big 
financial app but I really wouldn't claim it could count as a perfect 
general solution.

tim