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   RE: [xml-dev] Boundless Space and Identity

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1.  Enumerations are an awkward means to address. 
    Most purely name systems are awkward that way. 
    They require a bounding specification, 
    some set of related information to establish 
    identity within acceptable probabilities.  For  
    example, if you search on my legal name, 
    Claude Bullard, in Yahoo, you will get two 
    returns in Alabama.  Which one is Len?  It helps to 
    know where Len lives.  This must be specific to a 
    name in a different system.  The naming 
    system is insufficient to establish identity unless 
    it is paired to the precise location.  The limits 
    of precision in location can create a random choice 
    that is made arbitrarily (by chance or policy:  see 
    2000 American presidential election for a study 
    in system limits given an unresolvable granularity).

    We can say a URN is a URI is a URL only because 
    we use tools to make this true.  Otherwise, a 
    name is not of necessity a location and a name 
    and a location may not be sufficient to establish identity.  
    A URI is insufficient to establish an information item is 
    on the web.  It makes it possible to put it there 
    because it is a name paired to a name (location). The 
    resources at the location establish identity.  
    Identity is not in and of itself, a value: it is a 
    derived or testable assertion, a mapping.

2.  Enumerations on an infinite space can exhaust 
    system resources unless the range of choices 
    can be restricted.

The point is that given equal choices, 
establishing identity is a coin toss.  Systems 
are designed to make choice non-random.  Communication 
systems are particularly designed to eliminate 
randomness or noise.  It is useful to have clear 
boundaries.

To be effective, the designer bounds the space 
to a range of some kind and will choose a means 
to identify a member.  Otherwise, the system becomes 
entropic (ie, Boltzman entropy).  The effectiveness 
of the means limits the reliability.

It is possible, as in the example of the circle, 
for the boundary to contain infinite numbers of 
points.  Abstractly, this is so, but practically, 
a unit will be declared, a means to identify a unit 
will be created, and so on.  That unit might be 
identified by position relative to the system 
boundary or by position relative to another member of a 
set, or by a unique name, known to be unique only 
because it is in the system set.

Namespaces in XML are not boundless.  One doesn't 
need order.  One needs structure and paired names 
(the QName and local name) to create boundaries.  
The circle provides a structure that bounds 
a potential infinity, but not a practical one. 

So is the Web bounded or boundless?  Is the 
Web a bounded information space?

len

-----Original Message-----
From: jwchoi@digiweb21.com [mailto:jwchoi@digiweb21.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 8:59 PM
To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject: RE: [xml-dev] Boundless Space and Identity


> Len Bullard wrote,
> > Enumerated space.  Is that addressing by name or position?
> 
> Could be either. You could address them as 1st, 2nd, 3rd ... from
> some arbitrarily nominated origin, in which case it's addressing by 
> position. Or you could assign the points distinct names, eg. "red", 
> "blue", "green" ...in which case enumeration is just the name 
> resolution mechanism, ie. to find the point named "blue", start 
> anywhere, and keep on going till you reach the point with that label.
> 

but in the case of naming "red", "blue", "green", we have to think about
matching name to order. but if there is no regulations, 
it's impossible in boundless space to impose name to each point.. 
Am i right?

> cp. ordinal vs. nominal numbers.
> 
> > Are the points on the curve or is the curve a boundary for the 
> > points inside the circumscribed space?
> 
> No, the points _are_ the curve ... there's nothing in between or
> outside, in the same way that 0.5 isn't in between 0 and 1 on the 
> natural number line.
> 
> Cheers,
> 

i think that many cases in XML, namespace is a kind of boundless space
not ordinally arranged, but nominally identified with key name.
There is no order in components in that space.
and we just can think about virtual curve to circumscribe every components.
so each points in that space are inside of the curve.




 

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