- From: Nathan <nathan@webr3.org>
- Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:37:40 +0000
- To: Sandro Hawke <sandro@w3.org>
- CC: Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org>, Pierre-Antoine Champin <pierre-antoine.champin@liris.cnrs.fr>, public-rdf-wg <public-rdf-wg@w3.org>
Sandro / Ivan, AIUI, a g-box is a "box" which contains triples, the contents of the box can change over time, and the contents of the box at a particular point in time form a Set of Triples, a g-snap (a snapshot of the contents, the value of the box at time t, the state of the box at time t), g-snaps can be represented lexically in a data format so that they can be transferred over the wire, these serialized g-snaps are called g-texts. some clarifications to sandro's text following my understanding: Sandro Hawke wrote: > On Fri, 2011-02-25 at 17:30 +0100, Ivan Herman wrote: >> Another way of putting it is that a g-text is a special form of a >> g-box, which has the peculiarity of representing a g-snap in a text >> file. > > No, a g-text is not a special form of a g-box. A g-text is a fixed > sequence of characters or bytes; a g-box is a potentially-mutable > collection. If two g-texts are the same sequence, they are the same > g-text; that's not at all true of g-boxes. > > In a low-level language, like assembly or C, g-box would be some area of > memory, while a g-text would be some values that might be stored in that > memory. a g-box would be some area of memory, a g-snap would be the set of values stored in that memory at a point in time, and a g-text would be a serialization of that set of values. > Computer files are boxes, not texts, in this terminology -- they can > change, and they have an identity separate from their contents. Indeed, and g-texts have their own identity separate to both the contents of the box, and the box it self. Relating to real life, let's say it's an apple box a-box: An a-box contains apples, the contents of the a-box at a particular point in time is an a-snap, a written list or photo of the contents at that point in time is an a-snap. Sorry to be a bit pedantic here, but I feel it's critical to keep clear distinctions between the three concepts box: a container snap: contents of the box at a point in time (or, the state of the box, or, the set of things in the box - set in the mathematical sense) text: a representation of a snap Best, Nathan
Received on Friday, 25 February 2011 17:39:56 UTC