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   RE: [xml-dev] more politics

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Hi Micah,

On Thu, 2003-07-24 at 09:31, Micah Dubinko wrote:
> John Cowan:
> 
> > "the system" includes human beings and other inference-drawing machines.
> 
> I'd really like to see the Web Architecture described in two parts:
> 
> 1) the layer that code cares about
> 2) the layer that people care about

I think you're right, but isn't it just too late for that?

IMO, the whole issue with the Web is that it has been designed for
people but that because of an unexpected huge success people have always
wanted to use it for programs. 

That was one of the goal of XML (SGML on the web so that programs can
use the web to exchange usable documents) and this is what Web Services
and the Semantic Web are trying to leverage on the success of a system
designed for people to exchange between applications.

> It's important for 1) to be reduced to a single set of principles.
> 
> For 2) however, there are already multiple interpretations out there, and
> seem to be deeply entrenched enough to stick around. I'd venture that a huge
> amount of discussions over on www-tag boil down to an attempt to get
> everyone to agree on a single interpretation, which for religious topics
> just doesn't happen in groups of 2 or larger (barring divine intervention).
> 
> It seems the Semantic Web is not meant to be read, but interpreted. :-)
> 
> > ... cannot be the same URI on pain of contradiction.
> 
> That sounds about right. If two assertions using the same subject URI
> conflict, then a logical contradiction takes place. It's bound to happen one
> way or another.

Yes, and I wouldn't speak of layers but of rules.

The Web today is like a road where you'd mix footers, skate boards,
bicycles, cars, trucks and tanks.

Layers suggests that they would run on different tracks which is
probably sensible but isn't the direction taken by the web as far as I
can see.

Having different sets of rules for each category seems to be the best we
could to to minimise the collisions if they run on the same tracks! 

Eric
-- 
Have you ever thought about unit testing XSLT templates?
                                                     http://xsltunit.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric van der Vlist       http://xmlfr.org            http://dyomedea.com
(W3C) XML Schema ISBN:0-596-00252-1 http://oreilly.com/catalog/xmlschema
------------------------------------------------------------------------





 

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