wirth@almaden.ibm.com wrote:
While we're on non-CS points of view, let me ask a new question about method bindings. I'm really interested in biological analogs (and was much taken by the ones you mentioned in your OOPSLA keynote). I've been trying to figure out how one might do method dispatching for prototypes that are floating around a distributed, sometimes-connected environment (as span the set of electronic gadgets I have in my pocket, briefcase, etc.). Cells have receptors on their cell walls that signal what messages (proteins) they can receive. Can we use a similar mechanism for objects? (The answer to which leads to more questions about where the methods are stored, how they're inherited, etc. The fantastic redundancy of having the full "source code" in the DNA in each cell is a marvelous thing.) Comments? Pointers to other writings on computational vs. biological systems?
Mike
i don't have any "pointers to other writings" but i want to comment. i liked what Alan had to say about the region between a prototype and a "kind" -- that something starts out as a sketch and evolves into a "kind of" something. i've wondered if a behavior for a prototypes or classes couldn't die if unused, like entrophy. one could prototype a method definition, allow it to keep track of its invocations and versions, and the most frequently sent definitions could persist across the temporal prototype-to-kind evolution phase. those methods definitions that are unsent would either die or remain in the prototype for further refinement -- excluded from the emerging "kind." furthermore, in an local image, unwanted (unsent) behavior could be treated like unreferenced objects -- eligible for garbage collection. if the behavior is ever needed, its definition might be fetched from another local image, compiled for that platform and evaluated -- as in a set of local images "floating around a distributed, sometimes- connected environment" or a kind of cyber-image. one could measure when a prototype is a more-stable "kind" by the frequencies of its instantiation and the utilization of its respective behaviors.
excuse me if this has all been discussed. i just subscribed to this forum. i liked your question about method bindings and wondered if dispatching might be assisted by somehow tracking behavior invocation, -John F.
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