Re: XML and Complex Systems (was Re: [xml-dev] Re: An Architecture for Limericks)

>
>Sean may be reading the same stuff that I am lately! Maybe
>"Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and
>Software" Steven Johnson ....

You got it in one:-)

 >Do you have any reading lists to suggest along this line, Sean?
XPipe on http://xpipe.sourceforge.net. Now at version 0.4. One
way to think of XPipe is as an exercise in emergent behavior.
Get a bunch of simple XML processing components
(XComponents) with simple interfaces, allow them to
hook themselves into assembly lines (XPipes) and networks
with feedback and self modification capabilities (XRigs).

I'm prototyping a Web Service execution environment
at the moment for XRigs with *no* centralized
control. Fun stuff. The Rigs do useful things to XML documents
but it is only possible to give statistical answers to the question
"when will it be finished":-)

As for other reading - all the lore we shoved under the carpet
to do with "data flow" in the Seventies. Jackson's JSD for
example looks positively prescient when you look at his
"process diagrams" as long-running RelaxNG validators.

Also, thanks to John Cowan for pointing me at
Flow Based Programming (http://www.jpaulmorrison.com/fbp/) which
is a very interesting read.

Sean