From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!hou5f!ariel!houti!trc
Newsgroups: net.lang.st80
Title: Observe! (speculation)
Article-I.D.: houti.220
Posted: Mon Feb 28 08:31:20 1983
Received: Tue Mar  1 03:32:05 1983


As close as I can understand the concept of "observer" languages, the
idea is that when the objects of the language communicate, the actions
taken for a particular message would depend upon the nature of the
sender as well as of the receiver.  More precisely, it might 
be that the same action "observed" by different objects results in
some internal change of state in the viewer.  Thus, the "child" object
sends the "pat" message to the "dog" object, and observes the "wagging"
action.  As a result, the child object changes its internal description
of the dog object to include the designation "friendly". This will in
turn affect how the child reacts to the dogs actions in the future.
One neat possibility is that objects might observe actions that were
not caused by messages from them. (EG another instance of the child
object sees the dog wagging its tail, and also assumes that the dog
is friendly.)

	Tom Craver
	houti!trc

	American Bell