sorry for the delay

RE01 Rice Brian T. EM2 BRice@vinson.navy.mil
Wed, 11 Nov 1998 12:18:13 -0800


well, i'm now in the middle of the pacific ocean headed (almost)
directly for the persian gulf.  i'm not at all pleased about this, but
have little choice.  the main reason for my silence has been that my
e-mail account was inadvertently corrupted due to software upgrades
(disgusting, isn't it?).  for these reasons, i ask those of you who
wanted to discuss some issues with me to re-send me your recent e-mail
files, as i have lost my address book file as well as my e-mail archive
beyond about october 24th.

the thread which i was about to initiate before being cut off was to be
titled 'tunes-0.0.1.c' or something like that.  what i want to do is to
create a data-format manipulator, where the format governs data stored
in an image file several megabytes in size for the 'object playground'.
the idea is to encode arrow-logic structures to describe objects and
relations, with the capability of being 'expanded' via adding statements
about the current structures' situations and have the program update the
data automatically.  the program will also require an interface for
viewing / manipulating the objects and relations.  btw, relations of all
sorts will have to be accessible as objects as well.

ideas for the data-format:
	-a doubly-linked 'web' (for n-ary relations)
	-dynamically resizeable regions of memory allocated to objects
	-(an appropriate garbage collector / re-positioner of data will soon be
necessary)
	-an auxiliary file for storing hash-tables for strings which will name
desired objects (obviously containing pointers to those objects).
	-the double-links should contain information about the type of link,
i.e. they should point to the relation object.
	+any suggestions??