Re: Persistent Documents and Locations

Karen R. Sollins writes in <199508211521.LAA09705@lysithea.lcs.mit.edu>:
>That doesn't maan that the sort of service in which Larry is
>interested is not useful, but only that one cannot assume that it
>should/will be a universal solution to the dangling reference problem.
>It would be a very useful service, since much of what may be put out
>there will be available for some sort of network-based, long-lived,
>stable storage.  But I hope you all understand that it will have the
>same problems with which we are already grappling and more.
In my reading of the Dexter hypertext model, the only deficiency in the 
model that stuck with me (also the only one I spotted)  was the assumption 
that there could be no dangling references.  Even within a single document, 
it can never be assumed that references will never dangle.  If nothing else, 
a stray cosmic ray or neutrino can strike at the wrong place & time and 
temporarily wipe out an existing reference (the hypertext equivalent to "I 
thought I was wrong once; turned out I was right after all..." :)).  URNs 
will be great, but they won't be omnipotent.
======================================================================
Mark Fisher                            Thomson Consumer Electronics
fisherm@indy.tce.com                   Indianapolis, IN

Received on Monday, 21 August 1995 17:45:32 UTC