Permaculture Information Web

[Richard Morris <webmaster AT pfaf.org>]

Marco Stahl wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> Maybe its possible to express Relationships as INPUTS/OUTPUTS of an entity
> (plant, animal, human, machine,...).
>
> An Entity could also be a category.
>
> Example:
>
> entity | parent
> ---------------
> creature NULL
> animal   creature
> plant    creature
> bean     plant
> hemp     plant
>
>
> entity  | OUTPUT
> ---------------
> bean      nitrogen
> hemp      climb help
> hemp      seed
> hemp      fibre
>
>
> entity  | INPUTS
> ---------------
> bean      climb help
> hemp      nitrogen
>
>
> We could also include the amount of the produced or needed product and
> reduce OUTPUT and INPUT to INPUT/OUTPUT. 
>
> entity    | (INPUT)/OUTPUT    | amount
> -------------------------------------
> bean      nitrogen          100
> bean      climbhelp         -100  
> hemp	  nitrogen          -100
> hemp      climb help         50
> hemp      seed               50
> hemp      fibre              50
>
>
> If Hemp is normaly a average "climb help" but a good one for beans, we could
> express that in this way:
>
> entity    | (INPUT)/OUTPUT    | amount
> -------------------------------------
> bean      nitrogen          100
> bean      climbhelp         -100  
> hemp	  nitrogen          -100
> hemp      climb help         50
> hemp      climb help bean    100
> hemp      seed               50
> hemp      fibre              50
>
> or alternativ:
>
> entity    | (INPUT)/OUTPUT    | amount | targetentity
> --------------------------------------------------
> bean	  nitrogen	    100         
> bean      climbhelp         -100  
> hemp	  nitrogen          -100
> hemp      climb help         50
> hemp      climb help         100        bean
> hemp      seed               50
> hemp      fibre              50
>
>
> Advantage of this approach:
> ---------------------------
>
> * No need for writing 10000000 relationshipentries just for 
>   the fact, that 100 plants produce something that all other
>   plants need (can even reduced/automated more with help
>   of categories)
> * you can easely integrate other entities than plants
> * you can easely express uses as products (and inputs of the entity human)
> * you could even express stuff like "a plant needs wet soil, high
> temperature"
>
> * maybe: (semi)automatic guild/permaculture-design-generation
>
>
> I hope you like my ideas,

Yes seems interesting. Were still throwing ideas on relationships back 
and forward at the moment. The notion of RDF triples seems quite 
attractive and cound certainly fit with what your describing.

> Saludos, Marco

Good to have you along.

        Rich