Reflecting on reflective computing.

[David Manifold]

On Thu, 22 Oct 1998, Jecel Assumpcao Jr wrote:

> If, in the other hand, I could
> create tools that would allow me to reduce that average to just a
> month per app, I would still come out four programs ahead even if
> it took me 18 years to do it (still four years to go :-).

Exactly.  And if we spend 50 years and end up with a product that allows
programs to be built in seconds, we'll still be ahead!

> Why not just layer these new things on top of Linux, you ask? After
> all, DOS and Unix were able to add GUIs after the fact with no
> problems, right? Of course, other things (multimedia, objects/components
> and so on) were not as easy to patch into systems not originally
> designed for them. 

Right.  Traditional systems require additions to be layered.  This always
seems to lead to bloat, unmaintainability, and makes code sharing
difficult.  We believe that with a reflective architecture where every
feature is treated orthogonally, users will be able to add or subtract
components (even new ones they develop) while keeping a seamlessly
integrated system.  For scalability and reuse it's important that the
typesystem allow any object to attempt to treat any other object as its
peer. 

David Manifold <dem@pacificrim.net>