From: Gerald Hilderink (g.h.hilderink_at_email.domain.hidden)
Date: 2001-08-24 10:41:24
Lawrence wrote:
> Marcel, Gerald and all,
>
> Back to basics:
>
> An object (at least at its roots) is a structure, and its
> methods are procedures for which this structure is the first formal
> parameter. Thus, the idea of a process being an object with a
> "run" method is somewhat artificial for two reasons: (a)
> there is no reason why a given structure should be associated
> with only one process, (b) there is no reason why a given
> process should be restricted to only one significant structure.
>
> The only amelioration of this is if the structure IS the
> workspace of the process. This approach has been useful to me
> in pseudo-occam programming. But in that case it is not the
> "object" that is the real entity, it is the process! Perhaps
> one could clarify this by requiring "run" to be the ONLY
> method. But I suspect that inheritance, polymorphism, etc,
> would still misdirect the natural flexibility of the process concept.
>
This is in line with our thoughts. JavaPP is artificial and the "run"
method IS the only method a parent process can call to kick off the
process. The client can only call "run" like other methods when the
process object is an object (passive) and not a process (active).
Recently, I use the terms process, process object and object. Their
relations are: a "process" is implemented as a "process object" and is a
collaboration (implementation) of "objects". Each term is treated
differently. Or a "process" has a workspace, a "process object" has an
object structure and an "object" has a data-method-structure. The terms
"active object" and "passive object" are useless for me.
A property is that the process object encapsulates a object structure,
thus, the process encapsulates a structure. However, objects can travel
from process to process. Is this a floating structure among te
processes? This is probably not what you meant?
Lawrence, can you give an example that illustraties your points (a) and
(b)?
Gerald.
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