Re: embodying understanding

[ht@markup.co.uk (Henry S. Thompson)]

Steve Newcomb <srn@coolheads.com> writes:

> On 06/11/2016 07:22 AM, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
>> I found this statement by Eliot to be particularly profound:
>>
>> ** Understanding can be embodied in code. **
>
> Me, too.

I've been struck by a particular kind of understanding which is
embodied in code.  I've been struck, in the course of my long-running
efforts to understand just what kind of identifiers URIs are, given
how unsatisfactory I find the various more-or-less official stories
that purport to address this question, by how particularly robust, and
proof _against_ the vicissitudes of domain name loss, XML namespace
URIs are.  I claim that e.g.

  http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml

identifies the XHTML language and _will continue to do so_, even if
w3.org is no longer controlled by the W3C or any successor, and
regardless of what, if anything, is served in response to a GET
request for that URI.  Why?  Because when browsers get an HTTP
response with a .../xml or application/xml+html media type and that
namespace URI on the document element, they process the document _as
XHTML_.

That is, the browser code embodies an understanding of that URI.

ht
-- 
		    Henry S. Thompson, Markup Systems Ltd.
               Cavers Garden Farm, Denholm; by Hawick; TD9 8LN
                            +44 (0) 7866 471 388
	       Fax: (44) 131 651-1426, e-mail: ht@markup.co.uk
			URL: http://www.markup.co.uk/
[mail really from me _always_ has this .sig -- mail without it is forged spam]