[rules-users] Batch-centric best practices?

Hi all, I'm a newbie to rules processing and would like to know if anyone knows of a good resource for learning batch-centric best practices. I'd like to solve problems like these: - Given a few objects of different type but with a commonly named attribute (i.e. Dog, Person, Cat, all having attribute 'age') find the one with the highest value for 'age'. - Given a collection of like-typed objects in working memory, operating on a single attribute (i.e. 'age'), find the most commonly occuring value. - Given a very large group of like-typed objects to operate on, finding the best number of objects to put into working memory per iteration for maximum performance. - Other performance and tuning tips..... Thanks much for any assistance! I love to read, so please do recommend any that concentrate on the practical rather than the academic aspect of working through such issues.... Best Regards, Rick ************************************************************************* The information contained in this communication is confidential, is intended only for the use of the recipient named above, and may be legally privileged. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please resend this communication to the sender and delete the original message or any copy of it from your computer system. Thank you. *************************************************************************