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It is me quoting me from somewhere long ago. One
who does a lot of declarative work eventually
recognizes the political aspects of naming the
names and understands that how much interoperability
is truly necessary is always a local choice.
You aren't wrong. Names will do for an improvisor;
however, the first time someone wants to faithfully
reproduce a piece, one needs the values. It depends
on what the system is and is to be used for that
makes the difference in where one puts the emphasis.
VRML is a splendid example. Underdefining the
rendering and behavioral specifications meant that
it always came down to having to specify the
browser as well. One of the excellent things
happening in the next generation, X3D, besides
the XML-encoding (admirable, but an example
of how crowd selection made a less effective
encoding more popular and integratible than
a superior encoding), is the concentration
on getting behavioral and rendering fidelity
in multiple browsers.
1. Without rendering fidelity, CAD applications
don't work. Without rendering fidelity, game
applications don't work.
2. Without both, it might as well be a proprietary
language because it will come down to a one
browser world.
Walter, I agree in principle but in practice,
types and behaviors do matter in standards.
len
-----Original Message-----
From: W. E. Perry [mailto:wperry@fiduciary.com]
"Bullard, Claude L (Len)" wrote:
> "Nodes is Nodes. Properties is Properties. Tell me who gets to name the Names
> so we can get on with business."
I don't know the source of this quote. I would, however, insist that it is just
as potent to choose items by their names as it is to give those names to those
items. Both are necessary forms of recognition. Both are expressions of
expertise. Both are effectively the association, via the name, of the thing named
to a local process, in the execution of which some part of the thing named is
instantiated with particular type and value. In Sean's example, the
percussionist's primary expertise is realized when he plays notes, whether they
are presented to him in musical notation or by some other labelling scheme, and
thereby instantiates their types and values. If this particular percussionist
claims additional expertise as a teacher he must demonstrate it by labelling the
musical types and values of his notes with words which his audience can recognize
sufficiently to associate epistemological processes of their own with the musical
content which the words describe, and from that content identified by those
labels to elaborate their own particular semantics.
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