opencog-dev team mailing list archive

[Ari Heljakka <ari.heljakka@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

> thanks for the explanation - very helpful :)

You're welcome.

> 1. You've mentioned a couple of times that the atom class is obsolete.
> Do vtrees now essentially fulfill all the tasks expected of the atom
> class in PLN, such that it's just a matter of replacing atoms with
> vtrees in most places (and maybe making a few changes to the methods
> called etc.)...

Yes, but they require more of context-specific handling because they 
don't have any internal automation.

> 2. Where does weak_atom fit in the scheme of things? is it also
> obsolete or does it still have use?

It is still used. The name is kind of inappropriate, I think "weak" 
referred to the notion of "embodies the atom Handle but not the outgoing 
tree".

weak_atom is essentially a vtree with bindings.

Note these:

typedef weak_atom<Vertex> BoundVertex;
...
struct TableGather : public std::set<weak_atom<Vertex> >

-A