Re: A working document

----- Original Message -----
From: "Herman Bruyninckx" <[email protected]>
To: <unlisted-recipients:>; <no To-header on input>
Cc: "Open RObot COntrol Software" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2001 7:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Orocos] A working document


> On Thu, 27 Dec 2001, Cezary Zielinski wrote:
>
> [...]
> > > Is there any difference with the data structure part of the
> > > component's interface? To me, both look the same: they present a view
> > > to the `outside world' on the internals of a component.
> > >
> >
> > The definition of component within the OROCOS Glossary does not specify
how
> > it is implemented, thus there is some ambiguity. If we treat a component
as
> > something more or less equivalent to a class, then you are right - the
data
> > structure part of the component's interface will suffice and there is no
> > need for the introduction of new names. However, if we treat as a
component
> > a whole process, a component (a process) has to communicate to other
> > components (processes) its internal state (its image) and that has to be
> > organised as a certain data transfer (export/import). In that case I
like to
> > use the term "image". The image is being transferred.
> >
> Why use another term when the whole computer science world uses
> ``interface'' as the term to represent the view that a component/class
> offers to the outside world? ``Interface'' can be used with both
> components and classes; it covers both data encapsulation as
> ``methods''.
>
> Herman

To me an interface is something between two faces - a kind of a go-between.
An image is something that is internal to a component. It is a data
structure ineternaly representing inside a component A another component B.
It is a representation (obviously simplified) of component B inside
component A. This data structure has to get its contents from outside the
component A. It gets this contents from component B through some kind of an
interface between them.
Thus two different names are needed.

Cezary
>
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