Overview:
Bee Team Software is about building software from small programs which coordinate their tasks. When built on a network of computers, they provide a distributed monitor and control system. We will use bee jargon to describe how distributed computer controls work because it is hopefully more understandable than computer jargon.
When properly built, a distributed control system is NOT one huge computer program, but rather a collection of small programs - each doing a single task. We will call these small programs bees and a collection of them is our bee team. The are controlled by a central scheduler and dispatcher, our queen. She resides in our central computer or hive, which also contains all our data or honey.
See Bee Jargon or Computer Jargon for details and diagrams.
Here's how it works:
The hive [database] and queen [scheduler / dispatcher] are in your central computer. It is the control center.
Many types of worker bees can be defined. Some monitor and control devices such as conveyors, vehicles or instruments. Others respond to events as they come into the database. And still other bees create displays and reports.
When your system starts up, the queen creates all the bees needed and sends them on their tasks. But busy bees need guidance, SO the queen schedules bees, sometimes by the clock and sometimes in response to some event on the network or change in the database. We can define rules to control her decisions.
Here's what it does:
More here soon. Perhaps a demo. ...
Meanwhile, look at the diagrams and links below.