Apps Messaging Manifesto

[Rob Seaman]

Mark Taylor wrote:

> A couple of other items from the PLASTIC manifesto http:// 
> plastic.sourceforge.net/manifesto.html (also John's) may be closer  
> to what you had in mind:
>
>   - The astronomer should have a suite of tools at his disposal,
>     each of which does one thing well, and can be composed according
>     to his needs.
>
>   - Developers are more likely to produce tools that do one thing well
>     if they can easily out-source their secondary concerns to other
>     tools.
>
> Though in some cases these points were deduced from the state of
> the protocol post hoc, I'd say they are a fair representation of the
> thinking which led to PLASTIC as it stands.

Better - but still no description of what kind of thing is being built.

> Maybe someone from elsewhere on the "diversity of opinions" spectrum
> (or even in the peanut gallery) would like to agree/disagree/comment/
> suggest amendments.

How about:

"VOOOM (VO O-O Messaging) is a simple messaging protocol for VO  
toolkit applications to communicate on the same host."

Folks have been haggling about details of a solution when they have  
yet to agree on the problem being solved.  Implicit in the statement  
above is that the VO might well specify other messaging protocols for  
other purposes.  There is no way to keep VOOOM simple otherwise.

Also suggest that the diminutive VOOOM compliant hub be referred to  
as "CatZ".

Rob Seaman
NOAO