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98 lines
4.2 KiB
98 lines
4.2 KiB
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<head>
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<meta name="generator" content=
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"HTML Tidy for Mac OS X (vers 31 October 2006 - Apple Inc. build 13), see www.w3.org" />
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<title>
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Preface - World Wide Web Design Issues
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</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="di.css" type="text/css" />
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</head>
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<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
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<hr />
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<p>
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<a href="Overview.html">Design Issues</a>
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</p>
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<h1>
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Preface
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</h1>
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<h2>
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Architectural and philosophical points
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</h2>
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<blockquote>
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<i>These statements of architectural principle explain the
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thinking behind the specifications. These are personal notes
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by Tim Berners-Lee: they are not endorsed by W3C. They are
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aimed at the technical community, to explain reasons, provide
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a framework to provide consistency for for future
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developments, and avoid repetition of discussions once
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resolved.</i>
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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I have found that, having started this set of notes in 1990
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in the (for me) novel medium of hypertext, it has been
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difficult to tear free of it: my attempts to lend hierachical
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or serial order have been doomed to failure. Further, as
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ideas and these web pages have evolved, it has been important
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for me to be able to reorganize my thoughts, grab a new leaf,
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shake the tree and regard it as the root. So the reader needs
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to be aware of this, that each page may be an attempt to put
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across a given concept serially, but if you are looking for
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an order of concepts and subconcepts, you have as much hope
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as you would with words in the dictionary. I can sympathise
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with Ted Nelson whose <cite>Litterary Machines</cite> has "a
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Chapter Zero, several Chapters One, one Chapter Two, and
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several Chapters Three", not to mention with Ludwig
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Wittgenstein whose <cite>Philosophical Investigations</cite>
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have only paragraph numbers for structure.
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</p>
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<p>
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The notes are in a constant state of flux, sometimes minute
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by minute, sometimes decade by decade. Their status varies -
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some have typos and spelling errors, and represent thoughts
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half expressed, wheras others described resolved issues which
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have become fundamental architectural decisions in the
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conceptual infrastructure of the Web. Again, something in me
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resists the urge to draw a line and move things from here
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into a "done deals" space. I try to represent accurately the
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status of a given page in the section above the rule at the
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top. Definitive documents, reviewed by W3C members and
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others, you will find elsewhere.
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</p>
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<p>
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Neither have I found it easy to restrict myself to separated
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technical or philosophical arguments and somehow this I feel
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is also important, the sharpening happening, after all, where
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the knife meets the stone.
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</p>
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<p>
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I did draw a line between the really old ones whose dates I
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couldn't necessarily even find, and which were too out of
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date to find themselves linked into any current discussion.
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Hence the brown archival section on the contents page, and
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the brown archived notes it points to. These are really only
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available for completeness of archival, and not suggested
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reading. The other remarks here do not apply to them.
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</p>
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<p>
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For all its (or because of its) lax flexibility, I have
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personally found this space a useful one. I have used it to
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place opionions and explanations which I have needed to
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express, and have found it useful to be able to express them
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later to others. But also I have found it a personally useful
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excercie to review the state of order and disporder from time
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to time, part of the intuitive process of making a new step.
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But that is all personal use and, and for the hestiations I
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have just outlined, I have never felt that the whole
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collection has been worthy of recommeding as reading as a
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work in itself.
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</p>
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<p>
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Tim BL October 1998
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</p>
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<hr />
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<p>
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<small>$Id: Preface.html,v 1.5 1999/01/06 18:12:59 timbl Exp
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$</small>
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</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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