Hi Gabreiele and all, I'm big fan of simmilar ideas such is building virtual or information worlds. I'm strongly interested especially in the visualisation of this worlds. You could have a look at http://www.cybertown.com . This is really great implementation of virtual community. It is a combination of Java and VRML so you will need to download their VRML plugin but it will be worth to see it ;-) I was always wanted to generate virtual 3D worlds using Rebol. Long time ago I was experimenting with REBOL generated static VRML worlds...lot of fun ;-) I just hope one day we could make such things without the VRML, directly in Rebol/View's 3D dialect.
Regards, Cyphre ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gabriele Santilli" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "chaz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 2:14 PM Subject: [REBOL] Re: The Information World (was: Morpheus - the bitter thruth?) > Hi chaz, > > On Friday, March 08, 2002, 10:46:56 AM, you wrote: > > c> post it! > > Here it is... (You can ignore the challenge part...) > > Regards, > Gabriele. > -- > Gabriele Santilli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- REBOL Programmer > Amigan -- AGI L'Aquila -- REB: http://web.tiscali.it/rebol/index.r > > > > > A REBOL challenge > > [Permission is explicitly granted to publish this document on the > REBOL Zine, on REBOLForces or on any other REBOL-related > publication/site/whatever.] > > With this message, I'm going to launch a challenge. The goal is to > create a peer-to-peer communication system as described below; > implementations will be judged by the members of the REBOL mailing > list, with regards to: > > * Code elegance and simplicity > * Efficiency > * Usability > > If my free time will permit, I'll participate to the challenge > too; a time limit will be set in agreement with the participants. > The resulting code is required to be freely distributable at least > inside the REBOL mailing list; freely distributable software will > be preferred over restricted software because to be useful the > system has to be available to all the users of the Internet. > > [I'm quite sure Maarten will participate with a Rugby based > implementation; I'd like to have someone doing a REBOL/IOS based > implementation too...] > > If you are interested, please read the following document > carefully; comments or requests for clarifications will be > gratefully accepted. [Since this version can be considered a sort > of draft, I would be vert grateful to those of you that will > really be brave enough to read it all and offer me some comments.] > > The "Information World" > > I want to create a sort of "virtual world". I will call it the > Information World (IW). This world is made of informations, from > static data to "live" entities able to interact with the rest of > the IW. > > The IW is based on three simple entities that the implementation > has to represent. These are "Places", "Objects" and "Agents". > > Places > > A "Place" is a location in the IW. It can contain objects and > agents, and it can be connected to other places. (The connection > does not necessarily need to be a TCP/IP connection or something > like that; you can think of it as a "road" going from one place to > another. Also notice that if place A is connected to place B, > automatically place B is connected to place A.) Agents can move > from one place to another only using a connection (normal agents > cannot create a new connection). > > The implementation of a place has to provide a way for agents to > know what other objects and agents are present in the place. I.e. > the agents will have to be able to query the place where they are > to know what's there besides of them. > > Objects > > "Objects" are "things", such as repositories, containers, > documents, and so on. An object can contain other objects; for > example, a book shelf object might contain book objects. By > themselves, objects cannot move from one place to another or > interact with other objects or agents. Only agents are able to > interact with other agents or objects. > > The implementation should make it easy for objects to be moved > from a place to another (by agents); also, agents must be able to > query an object to know what actions it can perform on it (for > example, a book shelf might provide a "search" action to allow an > agent to search for a book, and so on). > > The implementation has to provide an easy way for users to create > new objects. Also, objects can be cloned. > > Agents > > "Agents" are the most interesting entity of the IW. They are the > key for the communication, since they are the only entity that can > move from a place to another and interact with other entities. > They can also carry objects, but there should be a limit on the > size of the objects an agent can carry on a given connection. > Implementations have to deal with security issues raised by the > presence of agents. > > In particular, two categories of agents have to exist: "Residents" > and "Tourists". The only resident agents available should be: > > * The "Road Builder", which creates connections with other > places. It is the only entity that can create connections; of > course it can destroy a connection too. > > * The "Sentinel". A sentinel can be placed on every connection > to verify the identity of coming tourists and place restrictions > on them or even disallow their entrance. Each sentinel should be > in communication with the one on the other side (if present) to > be able to identify coming tourists. (Identifying might just > mean assigning a "trust level" or something like that.) > > * The "Mail Agent", which is responsible of sending (big) > objects to other places. The mail agents can be asked by an > agent to send an object to another mail agent on another place; > it should also be possible for mail to be delivered to a > specific agent in a place (passing thru the mail agent of that > place). The implementation should provide an efficient way to > transfer any amount of data. (This makes up for the limit of > agents to carry objects; place-to-place connections should be > optimized for the transport of tourists with rather small > baggage, while mail agent-to-mail agent "connections" might be > optimized for transferring big objects.) > > * The "Banker". A place might have a banker which holds > important objects. Objects available in the place can be used > (and cloned) by any agent, so a banker might be needed to > restrict access to some objects. > > The implementation should not allow for a tourist to become a > resident, unless the user explicitly wants it to (and he/she > should be warned that this is a security issue). Residents > (sentinels and mail agents in particular) should have a secure way > to identify themselves. (There's no reason for a resident to > become a tourist and to move from one place to another; anyway, if > an implementation allows the user to do this, it should take care > of any security issue that may rise.) > > Tourists can be of any kind and freely move from one place to > another (provided they get permission from the sentinels) > traveling the IW. The implementation should provide a way for the > user to create new tourists. Tourists can be cloned (with or > without their baggage :). Also, the user has to have a simple way > to instruct a tourist to do something (such as "Go on and search > for this book!"). > > But why? > > Because it looks like a lot of fun. :-) And also because our brain > is just a network of rather simple things... ;) > > -- > To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the > subject, without the quotes. > > -- To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the subject, without the quotes.
