[Pipet Devel] Loci as a locus

[Gary Van Domselaar]

"J.W. Bizzaro" wrote:
> 
> Wise and mighty Locians,
> 
> I haven't mentioned this before, but the thought came a while back about
> embedding a copy of Loci within Loci so that it runs as a locus.
> 
> Where did this idea come from?  Well, I was thinking about what would happen
> if you made a Workflow Diagram or graphical script where some outputs were
> left unspecified (little dots not connected).  Loci should then send the
> outputs to stdout, right?  Then I realized the same would apply to unspecified
> inputs: They should come from stdin.  Or maybe, since we could have multiple
> connectors unconnected, you could specify on THE COMMAND-LINE, what to do with
> them:
> 
>     $ loci -i1 <input1> -i2 <input2> -o1 <output1>
> 
> So, hmmm, if Loci can run like this from the command-line, maybe Loci too can
> be wrapped to run inside of Loci!

This strange loopiness reeks of Godel, Escher and Bach. I love it.  
Actually, I was thinking about some of Brad's suggestions for wrapping
backend apps and it struck me that, AFAIK, the only programs that Loci
can really 'wrap' are the ones in which Loci can control the redirection
of stdin and stdout.  This includes command-line driven apps, CORBAfied
apps, cgi scripts, and so on, but not apps with 'fixed' stdin and
stdout. This includes a large number of apps where the processing and
the GUI are 'integrated'. Input is typically restricted to file (or
database), keyboard, and mouse, and output is typically restricted to
the GUI display or file (or database).  We would be remiss to make an
application-wrapping framework that itself cannot be wrapped.  I just
wonder if CORBA might be a better solution than the command-line?

gary
--
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Gary Van Domselaar		gvd at redpoll.pharmacy.ualberta.ca
Faculty of Pharmacy 		Phone: (780) 492-4493
University of Alberta		FAX:   (780) 492-5305
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada       http://redpoll.pharmacy.ualberta.ca/~gvd