Semantics of Ordering

There was a request for clarification of requirement 3.2.2, "The semantics
of an ordering are discoverable."

"Semantics" here is the principle or rule according to which the members
are ordered.  The point of the requirement is to make it possible for
someone (or application) other than the person (or application) who
originally ordered the collection to add members to the collection and
figure out where to position them in the ordering.

In cases where the ordering is based on the value of a property, this
semantics could be expressed just as the order-by clause of a query, and
could be used by a machine.  In other cases, it's less clear that there
could be a formal expression of the semantics that would be useful without
human assistance.  But a human-usable expression of the semantics  is still
useful: "The order the pages should appear in a printed copy of the book"
or "The order in which the lectures will be presented for section 3 of
History 101".




Name:		Judith A. Slein
E-Mail:		slein@wrc.xerox.com
Phone:  	(716) 422-5169
Fax:		(716) 422-2938

Xerox Corporation
Mail Stop 105-50C
800 Phillips Road
Webster, NY 14580

Received on Friday, 24 April 1998 19:37:36 UTC