Subject:      Re: Web Neurons
From:         john@eco.powernet.co.uk (John Middlemas)
Date:         1996/06/01
Message-Id:   <4opnh3$f05@power2.powernet.co.uk>
References:   <4nraca$c25@power2.powernet.co.uk> <4o0kp0$nlm@news.aloha.com>
              <4oa55o$bch@power2.powernet.co.uk>
              <4oabd5$i4e@dfw-Ixnews7.ix.netcom.com>
Organization: Power Internet
Reply-To:     john@eco.powernet.co.uk
Newsgroups:   comp.ai



apuleius@ix.netcom.com (William Grosso) wrote:

>In <4oa55o$bch@power2.powernet.co.uk> 
John Middlemas writes: 
>>
>>jordy@aloha.com (Jordy) wrote:
>>
>>But not the FIRE tag which is the cornerstone of the Web neuron idea
>>and involves a fundamental change in view as to how programming should
>>be done.
>>

>Well, no. Not really. At least, I don't quite get how "FIRE"
>involves a fundamental change etcetera.

>In OO programming, one frequently adopts the intentional stance
>towards other people's objects. Indeed, this is one of the 
>big wins in OO-- you can easily explain code to other people
>by saying "This object wants to do this" or "That object's
>not happy anymore." They use this anthropological model of 
>your object, without ever paying attention to the inner 
>workings. 

>When you combine this with indirection schemes like 
>publish/subscribe (which is a standard enough practice to 
>be in the CORBA spec), you get something that smells a lot
>like a much more flexible version of your "fire."

>>Thanks for replying. HTMLSCRIPT is definitely worth a 
>>look (a bit expensive though).

>Could somebody mail me the reference ? That article never
>showed up here. 

All jordy said was that I might try HTMLSCRIPT there was no reference.
I think I found out about it using a lycos search.

As an example of the fundamental difference I am talking about please
consider the following Email I sent to an interested party:-

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

[start]

One of the points of Web neurons is to get rid of Applets and
Javascript and put the programming side of things on a neural basis. A
Web neuron network or "Weblet" would be able to duplicate any
neural-net and NN engine but would not be one itself in the
conventional sense. I think it could do a lot more.

It is desirable to keep a lot of the qualities of HTML. If JAVA were
used then all these would have to be re-invented in JAVA. There seems
little point in doing this when all you need are a few HTML
extensions. Integration is better then fragmentation.

I agree that many HTML extensions may be unnecessary but on the other
hand some crucial ones have been omitted. If you will pardon me for a
long post I will go on a bit.

Any programming task can also be performed by linked HTML pages with
suitable HTML extensions that allow:-

        Triggering of other pages (this can provide multi-tasking)
        Data to be passed between pages
        Data to be stored in pages, and named
        Simple logic flow (IF, ELSE) acting on stored data names 
        String handling
        Links to be made/broken
        Pages to be created/deleted
        (things I didn't think of yet)

all automatically.

It may look like a lot but not that many extensions are needed, just
the right ones (IMHO).

Any database and database handling program can be duplicated by a
Weblet. Databases have to do things like - find, sort, add (record),
delete, goto next, update, etc. 

As a crude example -  to find say Mr Jones' record in a Weblet address
book database:-

In this I am thinking that each HTML page (Web neuron) represents one
database element.

Input "Jones" from the user.
Trigger the first Surname element page, and pass "Jones" to it.
Store "Jones" as say ARG1 in that page.
Suppose the contents of this page were "Bloggs" stored as CONTENTS. 
Also, that the record number "1" is stored as RECNUM.
Do a test - IF CONTENTS=ARG1 then trigger a result page and pass it
RECNUM.
   ELSE, trigger the next Surname element page (in record 2) and pass
it "Jones"
Carry on until you get a match,
   or the last element passes say "No match" to the results page.
The record number could be stored as text in the results page and
displayed.

Note there is no need for a search Loop as in standard languages. Only
one simple IF ELSE per element page (Web neuron). 


This does involve a radically different programming strategy. Each
database ELEMENT now becomes a sort of "object" with its own code, and
with explicit links to other elements.

So JAVA is not needed at all because the programming is handled by the
Web neurons, the way they are linked together, and a very small amount
of simple code (using IF ELSE) inside each. Looping constructs such as
WHILE, FOR, REPEAT, NEXT etc and indeed GOSUB, common in BASIC, C,
JAVA etc are not needed since their function is taken over by linking
(or hyperlinking if you prefer). These Looping constructs cause
confusion to new (and old) programmers and should be banned.

I consider structured programming to have been an extremely expensive
blunder. That is why Neural-nets and object orientation have made
headway. I don't wish to appear arrogant but the true answer is simple
and none of these, i.e. Web neuron Weblets or something very similar.
It's the way the brain works! 

To be fair though - it doesn't have to be done in HTML. It is worth
considering starting from scratch i.e. Assembly language, or even
microprocessor design. I just thought the HTML option looked rather
elegant since HTML is based on hyperlinking which is the cornerstone
of Weblets.

I realise I did include the <WHILE> HTML extension in the original
post but I thought more about things since then.

Regards,

---------------------------------------
John Middlemas