Some of the tools of meta-programming are Annotation, Reflection,
Aspect Oriented Programming and programs like Beagle and techniques
like Tenor. These will be discussed over a period of time. Beagle is
already available in Linux in such packages as SUSE 10.1, Red Hat and
others. Some aspects of the Tenor project are already available in
Linux. Beagle might be said to be a word-indexer, providing
"knowledge" of where particular words are found. A Beagle-like
indexing scheme operating at first order level is one of the tools
which can help systems become "situated" in that Beagle-like systems
can provide a (first order level) "knowledge" (map) of words that are
in the system. (A program which examines this map then is able to
indicate what (words) the system "knows". This forms a dynamic
"knowing" that the system "knows" particular words (as present in the
map). Keep in mind though that Beagle-like systems THEMSELVES do not
"know" or "realize" the meanings or semantics of those words it "knows
about".

In a future posting we will see what value can be derived by
"Beagling" ontologies, it is far more than just knowing where the
words are located in that sea of angle brackets. Also we will have a
look at what Published Subject Indicators PSI bring to programs
working toward semantic network functionality.


--- In metaphorical@yahoogroups.com, "david_dodds_2001"
<david_dodds_2001@...> wrote:
>
> The Metaphorical Web picture is a fractal which I have edge detected
> and extruded so as to enhance a three-dimensional visual texture. Some
> people call this the Butterfly fractal. It is symbolic of computer
> representational and processing metaphor.
>
> (Some) Humans can "see" a butterfly when they look at this fractal
> (The Metaphorical Web yahoo group picture). This is making / using a
> metaphor. There is no actual butterfly, nor would it be mistaken for
> an (picture of) actual butterfly. It evokes (for some viewers anyway)
> butterfly-like rememberances, like their wings, perhaps flapping,
> perhaps not. The point is that this is exactly what metaphor is, a
> kind of analogy or similarity, but it is not random in its mapping,
> nor is it a complete 100% point-to-point mapping such as would be an
> instance of a photograph of some actual butterfly.* The details and
> structure of this partial mapping is what computer metaphor is about.
> Some readers will see relevancies into the domains of modeling and of
> simulation, others in domain of robot 'planning systems'. Conceptual
> Metaphors are used daily by people to think about their world, to make
> and use functional abstractions, so much so that one often forgets
> that it is metaphors we are thinking with and not things themselves.
> Planning is aided hugely by being able to make and use metaphors and
> science and technology employ them a lot. We have all heard of the
> (scientific) metaphors such as "event horizon", "black hole", "gravity
> well". As well as evoking useful images (particularly in people) these
> terms can be used computationally in a meaningful way. That is what
> this newsletter is about, the domain of generation and use of
> functional "conceptual metaphors" as a technology and as a means of
> advanced computer representation.
>
> As of this post the domains of coverage by The Metaphorical Web have
> changed from what they were previously. As the previous owner of this
> group, Kurt Cagle, posted on Nov 2005, his material postings were
> continued at a blog at http://www.understandingxml.com from that date
> forward. Kurt will be making contributions to this version of The
> Metaphorical Web as well.
>
> *If one looks at a photo of an Albatross skimming through the air and
> makes an analogical comparison of that with a photo of a U2 aircraft
> gliding through the skies one can see that the latter is a
> technological metaphor generated from the former. Canadian and other
> passenger jet aircraft sport winglets at the end of their wings, these
> are direct technological metaphor of the individual (specialized)
> feathers at the tips of the wings of larger birds of prey. The Wright
> brothers said that they got the idea of 'wing warping' from watching
> birds in flight, clearly another direct technological metaphor, aka
> 'transfer'.
>
> Future postings will bring into the discussion Aspect Oriented
> Programming AOP, with some talk about AspectJ, and also about Java
> Reflection and how both of these first order metaprogramming
> technologies contribute to metaphorical and autonomous nee second
> order systems.
>