Re: FYI: timbl and bijan chatting about running code, closure, etc.

At 19:07 08/10/03 -0400, Jim Hendler wrote:
>Interestingly, I note the log seems to include a fair amount on the issue 
>of whether the p in "s p o" is somehow more important than the s and 
>o.  This is one Bijan and I disagree strongly on -- the little bit of 
>logic programming training I cling to always started by saying the 
>Predicates are more important than the constants or variables they refer 
>to for determining how the program runs -- that is
>  P(x,y).
>  P(x,y) :- Q(x,z), R(z,BIJAN).
>would be mainly dependent on P, Q, R -- BIJAN would just be a database 
>lookup, or would require looking for a rule with respect to R
>  thus, when I taught Prolog, I taught a lot about design of the 
> predicates, and nothing about the design of the constants except "they 
> must bind"

This seems to me an argument that predicates may be more important than 
subjects and objects in the design of inference processes, but not 
necessarily that they are more important in the determination of meaning.

#g


------------
Graham Klyne
GK@NineByNine.org