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Reference Types

References​

There are three different types of references that can point at an Atom:

  1. ZefRef: object pointed to and a reference to a GraphSlice as a reference frame. This reference frame means: seen from graph g1 at time t1.
  2. EZefRef: object pointed to and a reference to an Eternal Graph as a reference frame. This reference frame means: seen from graph g2, but not at a specific time, but the reference frame itself being an entity transcending time.
  3. PlatonicRef: purely an object pointed at. No reference frame is specified. This is the least specific and a useful data structure when communicating between graphs / services. It is also useful when working at a high level of abstraction and one wants to point at entities without getting into the details of which graph the specific data is represented on.
  4. Upcoming: RealTimeRef
  5. FlatRef

Either of these may point to the same entity (or more generally: atom)

Note on Naming​

We distinguish between

  • Ref: the concrete data structure pointing at an atom in a reference frame independent way
  • Reference: the collective term referring for the union of all {ZefRef, EZefRef, Ref}