Bamboo-a portable system for dynamically extensible, real-time, networked, virtual environments

Bamboo is a portable system supporting real-time, networked, virtual environments. Unlike previous efforts, this design focuses on the ability of the system to dynamically configure itself without explicit user interaction, allowing applications to take on new functionality after execution. In particular, this framework facilitates the discovery of virtual environments on the network at runtime. Fundamentally, Bamboo offers a compatible set of mechanisms needed for a wide variety of real-time, networked applications. Also included is a particular combination of these mechanisms supporting a dynamically extensible runtime environment. This paper serves as a general introduction to Bamboo. It describes the system's architecture, implementation and future directions. It also shows how the system can facilitate the rapid development of robust applications by promoting code reuse via community-wide exchange.