| From: | "Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@*******.MANKATO.MSUS.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The IQ of a frame |
| Date: | Sun, 4 Apr 93 06:49:20 CET |
Stupid....
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>>an ugly cat-like dude appears<<
Hello boys and girls, I'm Dr. Stupid. Today we are going to talk about
frames. Frames have many uses. You can put pictures into frames and you
use frames when you bowl . . .
Hey iDEEot! What are you doing, man! These people want to know abotu
frames in shadowrun, now about your stOOpid pictures!
Oh, but Ren. I was trying to make a funny.
Well stop it or no more gritty-kitty for you!
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The best way to describe a "frame" is as a sub-process of your main
process. This sub-process is given a specific function, which it will
perform without-fail until it completes the function, or is crashed in
some way.
The best analogy I can think of is this.
Let's pretend I have written a script that will automatically FTP to a
certain site, get a file, and then end. This is an example of a "dumb"
frame. It performs it's fuction, but if it comes upagainst some kind of
opposition, a site that is down or a file that doesn't exist, for example,
it will die.
A smart frame is similiar to a dumb one, but it has the ability to make
some limited decisions in order to complete the task. In the above
example, let's pretend that the sub-process (frame) I sent out on the FTP
mission was unable to find the file. It might then make an archie
connection to locate an alternative site, ftp to an archie match, and then
get the new file, all without me ever knowing that it did this. All I
would know is that the file I wanted suddenly appeared in my account.
That's not a perfect analogy, but it is sorta helpful. Smart-frames are
much larger that dumb-ones but much more capable.
[> Robert Hayden ____ <] Black Holes result from God
[> \ /__ <] dividing the universe by zero.
[> hayden@*******.mankato.msus.edu \/ / <]
[> aq650@****.INS.CWRU.Edu \/ <] # include std_disclaimer.h
