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 <[email protected]> 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 >> >> > > ============================================================ > 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
