Noel J. Bergman wrote:
My impression is that Howard's assessment of Avalon is based on the Phoenix container. Howard is perhaps unaware of that over the last year or so a lot of development has been going on that is resulting in the establishment of a set of common containment facilities. These include automated assembly, composite component management, component meta-models, deployment frameworks, development and management tools, etc.An article on The Server Side (http://www.theserverside.com/home/thread.jsp?thread_id=22371) started me thinking again about HiveMind today. The major issues mentioned there are the same as mentioned by Howard below:
I've looked to see how we could graft HiveMind into Avalon and vice-versa, but they are really quite different beasts. The type-1 vs. type-2/type-3 split is intrinsic and difficult to reconcile. HiveMind's concept of a module doesn't map so easily into the Avalon space, and HiveMind's free-for-all approach doesn't jive with Avalon's dogmatic security model
(including its explicit application construction descriptor).
Are these really incompatible concepts?
I think Howard's point concerning the type-X issue is non-trivial - but not because of any insurmountable technical issue - instead, its much more a question of maintaining clarity and consistency within a component model. I fully expect to see the Avalon platform incorporate these approaches - but in a way that is complete and consistent.
Isn't Merlin, for example, trying to do more with auto-assembly?
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Assembly management is a facilities included in the avalon-activation package. It provides support for automation of assembly processes, eliminating the need to explicitly declare consumption/production relationships. The focus of attention should really be on the facilities - Merlin is just an example of a container that leverages these features extensively.
Doesn't our model allow us to push services to be used rather than having to pull them from a service manager? I really don't see why this is an either-or issue.Its not an either-or issue. Both push and pull models of service acquisition are possible, preemtive or dynamic, etc. This is an area that is being worked on at the moment. I would be interested in hearing from some the HiveMind guys about their thoughts on this area as its a subject I happen to be addressing with respect to the Turbine components.
Likewise, free-for-all vs security can be viewed as a policy.It would certainly be interesting to get together with the HiveMind guys perhaps over on [EMAIL PROTECTED] and push some ideas around. As a minimum it would provide a chance for the Avalon crew to learn more about HiveMind content and ambitions and for the HiveMind crew to catch up where Avalon is today and where it is going.
I suggest that people give some thought to how TO collaborate with HiveMind and Avalon. I think that the combination of people and technologies could be great.
Cheers, Stephen.
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Stephen J. McConnell mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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