- From: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
- Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:10:34 +0000 (UTC)
On Thu, 6 Aug 2009, Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote: > > "This specification defines an abstract language for describing > documents and applications, and some APIs for interacting with in-memory > representations of resources that use this language." > > The phrase "abstract language" concerns me. It's not clear to me that a > language can be abstract, nor is it clear to me what this phrase refers > to, especially since it seems to be distinguished from the "concrete > syntaxes that can be used to transmit resources that use this abstract > language, two of which are defined in this specification." > > Perhaps there's some sort of abstract data model or information model > here; but I don't believe that the word "language" is appropriate to > describe this. Language as normally understood is a collection of actual > words or symbols, written or spoken. It is not a collection of abstract > concepts, at least not in any definition of the term I was able to find. > > http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=define%3Alanguage&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10 What term would you recommend rather than "language" that is more understandable than "data model" or "information model"? Would "vocabulary" be ok? -- Ian Hickson U+1047E )\._.,--....,'``. fL http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _\ ;`._ ,. Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
Received on Thursday, 13 August 2009 19:10:34 UTC