Okay Russ,
There are several options to chose from, depending on just how
adaptive you'd like the functionality to be.
LISP (Scheme, et alia): Allows for partial instantiation or
"currying." This mechanism allows your program to build functions out
of little pieces of text and then call _eval()_ on them when
completed. LISP uses a list for a generic structure but does not
infer type until you use something. Thus you could have a collection
of objects that were all completely different with functionality
created on the fly.
Javascript: Which, it turns out is a functional language; makes
functions first class objects and allows appending objects or
replacing their methods at run-time. I believe there is a native
"Collection" structure but one could be written if there is not.
Javascript also has an _eval()_ function, so partial instantiation is
possible.
Java (and, to an extent, C++): Allow for Collections of heterogeneous
objects, although the language is strongly typed and will try to
dissuade the programmer from being too abstract. The smoothest way to
apply different behavior is through interfaces, keeping in mind that
each class can implement the interface however it chooses. The
drawback here is that the interfaces must be concrete at compile time
and I don't know of an easy way to modify them at runtime (I'm sure
that it can be done but requires more work than the other two
options.) The STL has _functors_, generally for comparison but could
be extended, which can be called on arbitrary classes iffi those
classes provide the requisite methods the functor needs. One would
iterate over a Collection and apply the functor to each object, or
each pair. However, even with cool stuff like Policy Based Templates
(LOKI Libraries, Alexandrescu et al.) I think that compile time type
checking will make things less flexible than you desire.) I haven't
looked for functors in Java, but I imagine they are there or could be
created. Additionally, Java has lent itself to the "new" paradigm of
_Aspect Oriented Programming_ which I have not played with very much,
but I understand that functionality can be cross-cut across classes
and assembled at runtime but I would think that it would still be
pretty strongly typed.
IMHO, LISP and its bretheren fit what you seek although Javascript
potentially offers fertile ground and may be easier to integrate with
Java.
As for a single term to describe this, I still like Data Structure but
that's probably being purist and I could get behind active structure.
-Birch
--
"Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong
reasons."
~R. Buckminster Fuller
**** Use of advanced messaging technology does not imply ****
***** an endorsement of western industrial civilization *****
On Sep 7, 2009, at 5:48 PM, Russ Abbott wrote:
Let me bring this back to where I started with this. You may recall
that a while ago I was talking about what I wanted in an ideal agent-
based modeling system. I have been thinking about as a starting
point. One of the things I like about Drools is that it is a forward
chaining system that supports a workspace that can contain arbitrary
Java objects along with rules that operate on those objects. I find
that very attractive because it allows new primitives to be added at
any time while at the same time providing a reasonable framework for
logical operations.
I wanted a term that would describe this sort of openness.
As I've been attempting to describe it, the closest comparison seems
to be to a general Genetic Algorithm system in which the population,
genetic operators, and fitness function are all left open. The
analogy is that the GA population plays a role similar to the Drools
workspace and the GA genetic operators and fitness function plays a
role similar to the Drools rules.
I was looking for a term that would capture the sort of operational
framework within which the lowest level objects and operations were
left open while the framework implemented some higher level
functionality in terms of those objects and operations.
-- Russ
On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 4:27 PM, Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> wrote:
Birch -
I thought Container as well (although Bag leapt to mind too) but
Russ decided against so all that was left was the more abstract
descriptor. Besides, LISP has a data structure or two and
underlying types, loosely defined but they are there - IMHO "Data
Structure" is neither procedural, declarative, nor functional.
Of course.
I merely have my face being rubbed in this right now cuz I'm the old-
school C programmer working with some new-school C++ kids who don't
really even know what a Struct is... They will create a Class when
a Struct is what they really need.
Since I grew up in the early days of Knuth's Art of Computer
Programming (when you were still in a Brooklyn grammar school
beating up honor-roll students for their lunch money)... I tend to
the Procedural view of things... I learned all the Applicative and
Object Oriented and Concatenative ( In my NeWS days) languages
offered up to me in the g(l)ory days. I have loved my Snobol and
APL and Prolog and PostScript (*as a programming language!*) and
Objective C and Java and loved to hate LISP and Haskell and Simula,
and made peace with C++, but at heart, I love the half-step of
abstraction from hardware that good ole C provides. It's a goddamn
bit processing machine, gimme some register variables and an easy
way to do bit-shifts and I'll build the rest from raw stock!
Of course due to my current work situation I am drawn to "bring me a
rock" like a moth to the flame.
Does this mean you are avoiding deadlines? Or just so morbidly
fascinated with all things work-related that answering enelucidable
riddles is like mother's milk?
I have a bottle of Irish Whiskey to replenish yours and Bourbon is
always good (rot gut or not) but you know that I can't condone
burning books for any reason!
Yes, I believe we did do some damage to a bottle of Jamesons last
time you were over. And I don't need you to condone the burning of
books, but that doesn't mean you can't warm your hands by the
woodstove while *I* do. The real sin would be to use good whiskey
as an accellerant (for the combustion, not the attitude).
-Birch
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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
