Re: [xml-dev] The real world doesn't have an "other xyz", neithershould

[John Cowan <johnwcowan@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 7:04 PM, Kurt Cagle <kurt.cagle@gmail.com> wrote:

Controlled vocabularies are by definition "controlled" - adding, modifying or deleting terms from within a controlled vocabulary is done expressly by a curator.

Indeed, it's common for such vocabularies to have not one but many "other" terms:  after "hepatitis A", "hepatitis B", etc. it is usual to have "hepatitis, not otherwise specified".  Indeed this is common enough to have the standard abbreviation "NOS".

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GMail doesn't have rotating .sigs, but you can see mine at http://www.ccil.org/~cowan/signatures