A working document

I have studied both the "tentative specification of components' interface" and the follow-up discussion, but still have some querries and comments.

1) Does fig.1 imply that all hardware elements (e.g. actuators, sensors) have to be connected  to the upper layers of the system through the operating system? Is no direct connection (i.e. port access) anticipated? My experience is that usually sensors and actuators are not handled by the operating system directly.

2) How important do you think time-out is in the case of robotic components? 

3) Are codels pure code? (no data structures). That would imply disjunction between code and data which is contrary to object oriented paradigm, which has its benefits.

4) I would suggest a change in terminology. Instead of using the term "database" I would use the term "component image". Database has a slightly different meaning in computer science. In this case the outside world (other components) percive the component through the exported image. This compnent perceives other components through imported image. Thus we have a component image.

5) The question wether communication should be handled within codels or outside I would answer in favour of - inside. After all we want to hide from the user all the unnecessary details - he/she should concentrate on the task not on the communication details. Maybe special communication codels would do the trick (an intermediate solution).

Cezary