I figure it's about time for Parrot programs to be able to look at
Parrot's configuration, so I'm trying to implement a library equivalent
to Parrot::Config.  My current thoughts on implementation involve three
elements:

   1.  A Configure step that writes and executes a Parrot program. Said
       program builds up a PerlHash of options and freezes it to disk.
   2.  Said frozen hash, stored in (e.g.) F<library/config.fpmc>.
   3.  A small chunk of code in (e.g.) F<library/config.imc> which reads
       the frozen hash from disk and re-creates it.

This would guarantee that you're seeing the configuration info for the
current system, even if you moved a bytecode file with config.imc
compiled into it.

Unfortunately, I'm being stopped before I can even start.  The following
code prints "foo=" on my Debian server:

         new P0, .PerlString
         set P0, "foo"

         freeze S0, P0
         thaw P1, S0

         print P0
         print "="
         print P1
         print "\n"

         end

If I freeze a hash, the keys are preserved, but string values are lost.
  Integer values are kept; float values all come out as 0.0 (plus or
minus about eight zeros).

F<t/pmc/freeze.t> doesn't test freezing and thawing strings or floats.
Is this because the functionality hasn't been implemented yet?  A
cursory examination of F<src/pmc_freeze.c> suggests that it should be
working, but I may well be missing something.

If it's just some busywork, such as copying some code into PerlString
and tweaking it, I can probably do it, but I've been out of the loop for
a while, so anything particularly involved is likely beyond me.

--
Brent "Dax" Royal-Gordon <br...@brentdax.com>
Perl and Parrot hacker

Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.