<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.1//EN" [
 <!ENTITY copyrightDates '2001'>
 <!ENTITY % metacosm.ent SYSTEM "../en.metacosm.ent">
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<article>
  <articleinfo>
   <title>Place-RFC</title>
    <corpauthor>&author;</corpauthor>
     <revhistory>    
      <revision>
  <revnumber>0.1.1</revnumber>    
  <date>May, 10th 2001</date>     
  <authorinitials>Janselmeer</authorinitials>     
  <revremark>Initial release.</revremark>     
      </revision>
    </revhistory>
    <abstract><simpara>This document describes Places.</simpara></abstract>
  </articleinfo>

&license;

&project;


  <sect1><title>Definition</title>

    <glosslist>
     <glossentry id="def-place">
      <glossterm>Place</glossterm>
      <glossdef><para>The sum of Places in a world defines its geographical space. The Place is a rule independent concept, that is it may be as well a 2D space, a 3D space or a <acronym>MUD</acronym> room.</para></glossdef>
      <glossdef><para>A Place is an Entity which contains others Entities. Each entity in a Place is located by coordinates.</para></glossdef>
    </glossentry>
   </glosslist>

  </sect1>

  <sect1><title>Relations between Places</title>
    
    <para>Being an Entity, a Place may be contained in another Place. This is a current situation in the real world. For instance a city contains a lot of houses each of one being a Place. If <replaceable>P1</replaceable> contains <replaceable>P2</replaceable>, each Entity contained in <replaceable>P2</replaceable> is contained in <replaceable>P1</replaceable> by transitity. By this mean, it is possible to create a Place that contains all Places (i.e. all Entities) in a World. We call such a Place a <glossterm linkend="def-root-place">Root-Place</glossterm></para>

    <para>Places may be contiguous too. There are for example rooms in a house.</para>
    
    <para>But a Place can never intersect another one. This is an implementation issue: an Entity can never be in several Places at the same time.</para>


  </sect1>






<!-- JANSEL: TO DO

  <sect1><title>Moves</title>
  </sect1>


  <sect1><title>Perceptions</title>
  </sect1>

-->

  <glossary>
     <glossentry id="def-root-place">
      <glossterm>Root-Place</glossterm>
      <glossdef>
  <para>A Root-Place is a Place that is not contained by any other Place.</para>
  <glossseealso otherterm="def-place">
      </glossdef>
    </glossentry>
  </glossary>


</article>