[vos-d] s5 design

[Peter Amstutz]

The overall project can be divided up into three pieces, the backend, 
the middle layers, and the frontend.  The frontend is the user interface 
(of which I will be presenting a prototype).  The middle layers consists 
of code dealing with specific features, such as chatting, representing a 
3D scene, how the 3D world is organized, login protocols, and so forth.  
The middle layer is heavily influenced by needs of the frontend and the 
capabilities of the backend.  The backend is the object management layer 
that enables everything else -- it is the actual "Virtual Object 
System".

Here are some of the goals and key features for s5 backend:

 - Same basic Vobject model as s4, allowing vobjects to have 
multiple types and to connect to other vobjects through child links.

 - Vobjects now have an explicit computational/concurrency model based 
on Actors.  Each vobject is a separate logical thread of control -- in 
practice this will be implemented as a mix of user (cooperative) and 
preemptive (operating system) threads.

 - API oriented around asynchronous message passing and futures, 
allowing a method handler to return control to VOS and continue when 
some event occurs.

 - Language independent.  Vobject behaviors can be implemented in any 
supported programming language, and multiple languages can be used in 
the same process.

 - Object type definitions define cross-language interfaces and data 
models (such as A3DL).  Use code generation and reflection to create 
proxies automatically.

 - Architechture plans for distributed processing.  Vobjects can migrate 
between hosts.

 - Orthogonal persistance and caching.

 - Capability-based security and resource accounting (to eventually 
implement resource quotas.)

I'll talk more about how these pieces fit together in another email.

-- 
[   Peter Amstutz  ][ tetron at interreality.org ][ peter.amstutz at gdit.com ]
[Lead Programmer][Interreality Project][Virtual Reality for the Internet]
[ VOS: Next Generation Internet Communication][ http://interreality.org ]
[ http://interreality.org/~tetron ][ pgpkey:  pgpkeys.mit.edu  18C21DF7 ]

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