The biological cell (was: Erlang)

Diego Gomez Deck DiegoGomezDeck at ConsultAr.com
Sat Nov 15 09:21:41 UTC 2003


Hi Hans,

> Hi,
> 
> from the perspective of modeling in computer science, is there a 
> difference between the statements
> 
> 1) a biological cell IS a process
> 
> 2) a biological cell HAS processes
> 
> (related to the discussion if objects could been seen as processes) ?

Without entering in a discussion if processes exists or not in cells the
point here is: We don't care.

If the cell/object is/has zero, one or many processes is not important
at all.  The contract is: "I ask for something -> I get an answer" and
how the receiver solve the requirement is part of its "private" stuff.

I find the things related to processes as a part of the receiver's
implementation details.

One problem I see in the current receiver/message model in Smalltalk is:
The receiver is so hard-coded.

We always have an explicit receiver.  A type of "message in a bottle"
(without an explicit receiver) is something to experiment.  A message
without an explicit receiver can different answers from different
receivers (did you try to shout in a place full os people ;))

> Greetings
> 
> Hans

Cheers,

-- 
Diego Gomez Deck
http://www.small-land.org




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