prototypical analysis and design

Bharat Bedia bharat at lickbau.demon.co.uk
Wed Nov 22 00:17:07 UTC 2000


Thanks for your reply, Albertina. Firstly my apologies if people find 
this thread off topic. If they can point me to an appropriate place 
then I'll glad take the conversation elsewhere.

Secondly, all I have is my hands-on experience - I'm pretty low on 
the theoretical side. I think there are several issues but for now 
I'm only going to mention two: 1. patterns, and 2. the prototype 
paradigm
 
1. Patterns
Patterns have been heavily discussed elsewhere. So the key points I 
want to raise are: a. they provide a way for "experience or the 
defining concepts" to be noted, b. they enrich the vocabulary of the 
pattern users and c. the patterns often work in unison.  
Patterns crop up everywhere, architecture, object oriented design, 
organisational structures (See Jim Coplien). Maybe even stories and 
Hollywood Movies if you consider Campbells' "The Hero with a Thousand 
Faces" and Vogler's "The Writer's Journey". My last job involved 
assessing tons of business plans for a major technology incubator and 
I know there are quite a few potential patterns for business models 
(B2B, ASP, RFP, etc)!!!! Patterns seems to be self standing. Perhaps 
someone has put in some thought about a pattern language for 
patterns!!!

2. Prototypes
So there is a good chance that there are "patterns" for prototypical 
structures. I struggled with OO concepts for years which was 
confounded by using C++. The GOF Design Patterns book really helped 
me to understand OO by the medium of patterns. However, I still get 
frustrated by core OO concepts. I helped to design and implement an 
OO framework based on a generic opaque object. The interface of the 
object followed the Composite and Prototype design patterns. Parent 
an child nodes could communicate to each other (ie two way 
delegation). This was enough to quickly create different complex 
structures for example to mimic inheritance, polymorphism, 
encapsulaton (ie metaclasses). This has helped me understand the 
inner workings of OO much more. Then I discovered Self and prototype 
paradigm which I felt very comfortable with. I now feel pretty stupid 
since I realised I was using a prototypical approach to create 
traditional OO structures just like how I used C++ as a better C a 
long time ago! But then again this may be correct. Perhaps the 
problem context is such that the forces to be  balance require a 
class based solution. Therefore, inheritance, polymorphism & 
encapsulaton could be prototypical design patterns ???     

The GOF book (I think) advocates delegation over inheritance. I'm 
confused how to compare delegation to design patterns. Maybe the PHD 
is available online ?
Is your own ecodesign model available on a web site somewhere, I'd 
love to read it ?

cheers,

Bharat

--- In self-interest at egroups.com, Albertina Lourenci <lourenci at l...> 
wrote:
> Subject: [self-interest] Prototypical analysis and design
> From: "Bharat Bedia" <bharat at l...>
> To: self-interest at egroups.com
> Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 01:45:16 -0000
> 
> Dear Bharat:
> 
>                 I am also interested in showing the superiority of 
the
> prototype paradigm  to express complex concepts.
> 
> There are many people dealing with prototypes or delegation.
> But no language has reached the level of development of the
> Self language.
> 
> At the right moment based on  Günther Kniesel's PHD thesis
> 
> I am trying to figure out why he  argues that delegation is
> far better than design patterns.
> Since I am an architect and I was expected to unfold my PHD under
> the advising of Christopher Alexander, the author of the A Pattern
> Language, I would not deny the importance of this trend.
> 
> My contact with Alexander began in 1990 and lasted until 1992. 
Exactly
> at this time computer scientists showed interest  in mimicking in
> computer science what he did in architecture.
> 
> I have unfolded my own ecodesign model - or the domain dependent
> model entitled THe model of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Waves
> to plan and design sustainable cities. It is an appplication of
> catastrophe theory, graph theory, semiotics, symmetry groups of
> the plane and the dotless plane.  Its hermeneutic nature tunes
> well with the hermeneutic  (really musical) Self nature.
> I am trying to unfold a tutorial in Self and so the core of the 
tutorial
> 
> necessarily must deal with your concerns, because it is very complex
> to implement  concepts about sustainable cities.
> 
> 
> Alexander agrees it is far more complex  and complete than his
> A Pattern Language.
> 
> What I object to A Pattern Language is that Chris had not developed
> a correspondent geometric modeling (even less a computational 
modeling).
> 
> Likewise the Gang of the Four has not focused on developing language
> constructs that would correspond straightforwardly  to the design
> patterns.
> 
> I am reading an interesting paper from Jan Bosch that shows how to 
do
> this. Unfortunately he does not use delegation.
> 
> Kniesel in his thesis wants to show the superiority of delegation 
but
> I am still reading through his thesis and the papers I gathered and 
I
> have no conclusion.
> 
> But I would be happy if the researchers joined us in this  important
> discussion.
> 
> 
> I've read through the book "Prototype-Based Programming: Concepts,
> Languags and Applications" which provided lots of useful background
> material.
> 
> Like OO analysis & design, I'm interested in analysis, modelling &
> application design techniques for the object-based prototypical
> paradigm. The implementation would be done in an object-based
> language like Self.
> 
> Can anyone point to any online research material or book reference ?
> 
> I am exhausted now and recovering...But I hope we can trigger off
> a discussion and I promise to give the references gladly.
> 
> Best wishes
> 
> Albertina
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Bharat
> --------------------------------------Bharat@
> 
> --
> .----------------------------------------------------------.
> | Albertina Lourenci                                       |
> | PhD  in Architecture and Urbanism                        |
> | post-doctorate researcher                                |
> | Laboratory of Integrated Systems University of Sao Paulo |
> | Avenida Professor Luciano Gualberto, 158 Travessa 3      |
> | CEP: 05508-900                                           |
> | Sao Paulo Sao Paulo State Brazil                         |
> | Voice: +55 011 818 5254                                  |
> | Fax: +55 11 211 4574                                     |
> .----------------------------------------------------------.




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