[TransWarp] Configuration and Providers - final implementation plan (I hope!)

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 09:26 AM 7/15/02 +0200, Jean Jordaan wrote:
>Hi there ..
>
>> peak.util.EigenData changes:
>> 
>> EigenRegistry._register() - needs to use Zope 3-compatible algorithm, but
>> check at interface as well as its bases!
>> 
>> EigenRegistry.update() - needs to do "conservative merge"
>
>Err, pardon me if I'm being dense, but what does this "Eigen" convey? 

>From the peak.util.EigenData module docstring:

"""Objects that can be written, unless they've been read

[snip]

PEAK takes a "quantum physics" approach to immutability instead: treat
configuration data as an opaque box, whose contents you can change at will.
However, once somebody looks in the box, the result is fixed and can no
longer be changed.  You can think of it as a kind of "lazy immutability".

[snip]

FYI: the module and classes are named after eigenstates in quantum physics;
"one of a finite number of states that a quantum system can be in".  The
famous "Schrodinger's Cat" thought experiment is an analogy for eigenstates:
once the box is opened, its contents are forced to collapse to a single
eigenstate.  'SchrodingDict' and 'SchrodingCell', however, are much more
awkward to say and type!"""


>Anything like this one: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Eigenvalue.html ?

Nope.


>Or like these?
>
>own
>several
>proper
>possessive
>appropriate (to)
>peculiarly
>peculiar
>  more peculiar
>  most peculiar
>
>http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?query=eigen
>
>I'm guessing it means "Own". As in OwnData or ItsData or even MyData?

Not a bad set of interpretations, given that the "eigen" objects are rather
possessive of their state, are rather peculiar in the normal sense of
things, and yet also strangely proper and appropriate to their purpose.  :)
 Not the interpretations I had in mind, but good nevertheless!