Re: Quicktime Atoms
Re: Quicktime Atoms
- Subject: Re: Quicktime Atoms
- From: Tim Ramsey <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 16:55:20 -0500
On Friday, April 25, 2003, at 05:30 pm, Jim Rankin wrote:
On Thursday, April 24, 2003, at 07:16 PM, Jean-Daniel Dupas wrote:
QT atoms are basic containers that QuickTime uses to construct hierarchical
data structures. A newly created QT atom is like the root of a tree. Each
subsequent QT atom is contained in it and contains either data or other
atoms. If a QT atom contains other atoms, it is called a parent atom and the
atoms it contains are called its child atoms. If a QT atom contains data, it
is called a leaf atom. Applications and other kinds of software can also use
the QT atom architecture to store data. For further information about QT
atoms, see "Movie Toolbox: Fundamentals." "
Uh, so QT Atoms are trees? Why didn't they call them QT Trees?
No wonder the guy who asked this question was so confused.
yeah but surely the tree is made up of qt atoms? the way i
understand the words atom and atomic in programming in general is to
mean - all or nothing. complete. encased. to ensure you don't get an
inbetween / semi situation.
In most contexts atomic means indivisible - all or nothing like you
said. In graph theory, the theoretical basis of a lot of tree
operations, one talks about nodes and edges (or vertices) that join
them. We have a root node for a tree, child nodes and leaf nodes that
have no decendents. Why Apple chose to use "atom" instead of "node"
is a mystery to me. There may be a logical reason, but such arbitrary
changes in terminology make life confusing for everyone.
It would not be proper to say that a tree is a node (or an atom) but
rather that a tree is composed of nodes (or atoms if Apple insists).
BTW, in the general model, not only do the nodes contain information
(which could be a tree structure or anything else needed for a
problem), but so do the edges (generally pertaining to path
traversals and relations between nodes).
--
Tim
Laws are the spider's webs which, if anything small falls into them they
ensnare it, but large things break through and escape. -Solon, statesman
(c. 638-c558 BCE)
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