An object machine means that the whole system is defined in terms of objects. No C with or without plusses or parts of the C world. Just the system and the kernel. Object based would be a fitting word.
The obvioulsly virtual machine is defined by objects and their abilities, or intructions. Virtual means that we define ways in which the objects and instructions map to hardware.
Self-hosted means that no part of the system relies on external dependencies, apart from the operating system kernel off course.
The previous failures led to a very partial ruby attempt, which includes the ability to generate small binaries from source.
The architecture has been refined over several years.
The main plan is to prove the feasability on a smaller target. For this i will implement the Som-st (simple object machine). It has many tests and benchmarks and will make a good intermediate step (like a 5 years plan).
Tied in with this is a stronger focus on language independency. I will still use ruby as the main language for a while, but also work on translators to other languages, off course starting with SOM-st.
The third goal, more a neccessity, is to rework the bootstrap mechanism. This may mean using more tools, but also less ruby magic. this will start with a design phase.
Apart from the high level Plans (above) there is still a lot of work, here are some of the next few topics
The Docs are organized a bit like a book, some of the main links are in the main menu, eg architecture menu.
This page, status, plans and upcoming are updated as the project progresses. New ideas and major milestones are in the news section. The docs sections are updated with the actual state of affairs.
To get to know the system, there is also an interpreter and a basic visual debugger.
Last but not least, I try to get recent developments down on paper when they are still fresh. Though not much has happened lately, as we bought this