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--- research:ambientrefs [2006/07/11 21:17] – changed tvcutsem
+++ research:ambientrefs [2006/07/11 21:20] – tvcutsem
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 === Design ===
-Ambient references unify two concepts: they are both a peer-to-peer discovery channel //and// an asynchronous communication channel to a remote object. When an ambient reference is **unbound** (i.e. it is a dangling pointer), it is acting as a discovery channel, actively looking for remote service objects in the environment to bind to. Once such a suitable ((What exactly constitutes a "suitable" service is discussed below.)) service object is found, the ambient reference becomes **bound**. Once bound, an ambient reference is a true remote object reference to the remote service. An ambient reference carries //asynchronous// message sends only.
+Ambient references unify two concepts: they are both a peer-to-peer discovery channel //and// an asynchronous communication channel to a remote object. When an ambient reference is **unbound** (i.e. it is a dangling pointer), it is acting as a discovery channel, actively looking for remote service objects in the environment to bind to. Once such a suitable ((What exactly constitutes a "suitable" service is discussed later.)) service object is found, the ambient reference becomes **bound**. Once bound, an ambient reference is a true remote object reference to the remote service. An ambient reference carries //asynchronous// message sends only.
 When the service object to which an ambient reference is bound moves out of communication range, the ambient reference can become unbound again. It becomes a dangling pointer anew and immediately becomes a peer discovery mechanism again: the ambient reference will try to //rebind// to the same or another matching service.