Marcel:

Have you looked at Transframe?

for example: http://www.math.luc.edu/~laufer/mspls/abstracts/shang.html


> ** Original Sender: Marcel Weiher <marcel at system.de>
> > From: Hans-Martin Mosner <hm.mosner at cityweb.de>
> >
> > Have you ever noticed how methods and their activations correspond to 
> > classes and their instances? If you take this a little further,
> > temporaries could be just the instance variables of these
> > 'method-classes'.
> 
> Yes, I've been thinking on and off about this subject for at least  
> the last year, and one of my goals is introducing something just like  
> this.  One problem is that these 'method-classes', which I would  
> call first class operations, are really instances of the class  
> operation, which is a (fairly concrete) subclass of the abstract  
> superclass 'computational component' (a term from software  
> architecture).  So you have two levels of instantiation.  Hmmm.
> 
> Once you have these specific kind of operations, you can think of a  
> other components, for example data-flow processing elements.  My work  
> on stream-based iteration and EncodingFilters are squarely aimed in  
> this direction, with the goal of integrating these different concepts  
> as seamlessly as possible.
> 
> My most recent insight was that the relationship between normal  
> pipe/filter processing (each filter is an autonomous processing  
> element, reading from its source and writing to it destination, and  
> with complete control over how to deal with each incoming object) and  
> EncodingFilters (each filter is passive, receiving objects and  
> auto-dispatching a fixed processing message to them) is very similar  
> to the relationship between Smalltalk-72 ( each object is an  
> autonomous element, reading from the message/token stream and  
> interpreting each token as it sees fit) to Smalltalk-76 (each object  
> waits passively for messages which are dispatched automatically using  
> a fixed lookup algorithm).
> 
> Anyway, my overall idea (and project) is to create an abstract  
> meta-level based on software-architectural concepts and constructs,  
> with the Smalltalk meta-objects ( Message, Object, Class, ... ) being  
> particular concrete subclasses embedded in that overall hierarchy.
> 
> The Fischer paper was very helpful, btw. in its characterization of  
> control structures as relations over processes, which makes them fit  
> nicely within the software architectural concept of a connector.
> 
> ....
> 
> Any profs on this list looking for a part-time, crazy PhD student  
> (got my business to run as well)?
> 
> Marcel


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>