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179 lines
6.1 KiB
179 lines
6.1 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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Dictionaries in the Library?! Commentary on Web Architecture
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</title>
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<meta name="GENERATOR" content="amaya V2.4" />
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html" />
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<style type="text/css">
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/*<![CDATA[*/
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P.a { color: #7F0000 }
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</style>
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<link href="di.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<p>
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<em>This is light-hearted contribtion was written for and
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performed at the May 2000 W3C AC meeting dinner. At the time
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a debate had been raging at which one of the questions at
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stake was whether an XML namespace should be considered a web
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resource.</em>
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</p>
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<h3>
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Commentary on Web Architecture
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</h3>
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<p>
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<a href="Overview.html">Up to Design Issues</a>
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</p>
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<hr />
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<h1>
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Dictionaries in the Library?
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</h1>
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<p>
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In his book <q>Goedel, Escher, Bach,</q> the computer
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scientist Douglas Hofstadter ruminates on self-referential
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systems. At times, he uses the approach of a Socratic
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dialogue between two characters from Xeno's fable,
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<q>Achilles and the Tortoise</q>. The conclusion of several
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hundred pages of musings around Bach's fugues, Escher's
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recusive drawings, and Goedel's theorem are that you can't
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try to distinuish <em>wishes</em> from <em>metawishes</em>,
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or the whole system breaks down. Without drawing too many
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parallels with the recent XML-URI discusssions, we would like
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to relate a conversaion between Achilles and the famous
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tortoise, recently overheard in a library.
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>[Achilles and the Tortoise are each strolling in the
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library. They meet.]</em>
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</p>
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<p class="a">
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Achilles: Ah, Mr. Tortoise, I thought I might find you in the
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library
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: And a very nice library it is too, Achilles.
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</p>
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<p class="a">
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A: Thank you. It was a communal effort. As were the books.
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There are so many really beautiful books in the library.
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: And now we have dictionaries!
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</p>
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<p class="a">
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A: Yes, dictionaries are very important to me, Mr.. Tortoise.
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I want to use them to understand what some of those books
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mean.
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: Let's not discuss meaning, please Achilles -- you know
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what happens when we do that! I want to use these
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dictionaries in order to check that the books are correct.
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</p>
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<p class="a">
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A: Well, at least we are agreed that dictionaries are a good
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idea.
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>[they round a corner]</em>
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: Achilles, what is that?!
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</p>
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<p class="a">
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A: Why, a dictionary, Mr. T.
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: But it is in the library! I thought when we defined
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dictionaries we agreed it was "not a goal" to register
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dictionaries in the library!
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</p>
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<p class="a">
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A: But surely that doesn't stop me putting one in the
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library?
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: Irony heaped on Irony! The Library is for books. That you
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should abuse it so! A dictionary is not a book. It is a
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metabook.
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</p>
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<p class="a">
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A: What? Of course it is book!
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: You said that you wanted it have the form of a book so we
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make them out of paper -- but that doesn't mean the intent
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was to put it in the library!
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</p>
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<p class="a">
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A: But this is my section of the library -- it is the section
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on Library Architecture and I need a dictionary to define the
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terms used in that field.
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: But you know that people can loose things in a library,
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and libraries can burn down ... there are so many reasons
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that dictionaries should <strong>not</strong> be in the in
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the library, Achilles!
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</p>
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<p class="a">
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A: Look at this way, Mr. Tortoise: when I am doing research
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in the library, I need to be able to look up words, and so I
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need a dictionary in the library.
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: You have some woolly notion of finding out what books
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mean, Achilles, but we haven't agreed about that. The meaning
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of the semantics of "meaning" are not a consensus in current
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linguistic epistemorthosemantisophologic theory.
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</p>
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<p class="a">
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A: I don't need to go into that, but I need a place for
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dictionaries.
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: Oh, we have all been discussing where dictionaries should
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go. We have plenty of ideas: We have plans for a new vault
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building down the road much more secure than this library. We
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have that white tower on the hill we could use too.
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: Besides, in practice, most of us keep a pocket dictionary
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for each language we use in our briefcases. It isn't as
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though we need so many dictionaries. Frankly, dictionaries
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have such different requirements to books I am shocked to see
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this dictionary in your section of the library! If you don't
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take it out out, I will bite your heel.
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</p>
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<p class="a">
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A: But I thought when we designed the library it was so that
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any sort of book could go in it. That is why we called it the
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Global Eternal Bibliotech, after all: it is Good for Every
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Book. I should be able to keep this dictionary in it simply
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because it is a book.
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</p>
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<p class="t">
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T: But Achilles, for the last time, a dictionary is
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<strong>not a book</strong>!
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</p>
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<hr />
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<address>
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<p>
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With apologies & thanks to Douglas Hofstadter for
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taking us through the fun (and inevitability) of
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self-referential systems. Thanks to Ian Jacobs for playing
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Achilles at the dinner.
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</p>
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</address>
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<address>
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<p>
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Tim Berners-Lee
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</p>
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</address>
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</body>
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</html>
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