At 10:04 AM 2/11/97, Gavin Nicol wrote: >It's just a matter of interpretation. Code is data is code. >Java bytecodes are nothing more than a processing specification >until they are interpreted, and there are a number of ways *that* >can be done as well... true... >As soon as you start defining objects that have some behavioural >semantics associated with them, you also open up the possibility >of people interpreting the semantics. True, but essentially false: Once the interpretation of the data is a turing-complete problem, the possibility of _useful_ interpretation goes way, way down. Those unfortunates who stored data in hypercard scripts discovered that the hard way -- of course they're fine for the ages --- If you happen to have a hypercard interpreter in your pocket, along with a clone of the MacOS. -- David This is why I mistrust jumping to code _too soon_. To push the interaction envelope you need code, but you also lose reusability, because your environment sneaks into your data... We definitely will need to attach code to documents though. _________________________________________ David Durand dgd@cs.bu.edu \ david@dynamicDiagrams.com Boston University Computer Science \ Sr. Analyst http://www.cs.bu.edu/students/grads/dgd/ \ Dynamic Diagrams --------------------------------------------\ http://dynamicDiagrams.com/ MAPA: mapping for the WWW \__________________________Received on Tuesday, 11 February 1997 13:56:57 EST
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