Re: Library data is expressed primarily as text strings

In other environments I have included the concept of "natural  
language" to distinguish between these concepts. For most non-IT  
people, "text" means "in a human language", and "text string" just  
means a bit of human language. We refer to a book or article as being  
"text." If I wish to refer to "strings" in the IT sense, I would say  
"alphanumeric strings" or something of that nature.

When I look up definitions of text I don't see anything that would  
equate the term "text" with a URI. Even the definition of "formatted  
text" [1] doesn't equate it with non-language strings.

So maybe the problem here is with the use of "text strings" rather  
than "text." Library data is primarily expressed as text -- that is,  
as human language. The few uses of formatted data are either numeric  
data (used mainly for cartographic materials) and codes (language  
codes, codes for locations, etc.)

kc


Quoting Carlo Meghini <carlo.meghini@isti.cnr.it>:

> Corrected version of my previous message, apologies.
>
> Very interesting debate indeed.
>
> I am not sure I have followed all the developments, but here it  
> seems to me that the problem is NOT the "text string" per sé. A URI  
> (in its abstract syntax) is in fact a text string, and so is an  
> ISBN. The difference between a URI and any other type of string is  
> that a URI has a meaning associated to it, and this meaning allows  
> an agent (for instance a piece of software), who knows there is a  
> URI in a certain place, to do something with the URI (whether  
> display it nicely or dereference it and get back a representation).  
> So, a text string is fine, as long as the string conforms to a  
> syntax with an associated semantics.
>
> Carlo
>
> On Sep 5, 2011, at 11:46 PM, Tom Baker wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Sep 05, 2011 at 11:41:51PM +0200, Antoine Isaac wrote:
>>>>> OK, I've tried it in
>>>>> http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/wiki/index.php?title=Draft_issues_page_take2&diff=6212&oldid=6141
>>>>> (be careful, this diff includes quite some other changes,  
>>>>> including a couple by Tom...)
>>>>
>>>> This pulls the two points together into one coherent point
>>>> quite efficiently.  Nicely done!
>>>>
>>>> One minor stylistic suggestion:
>>>>
>>>>   s/especially, changes/in particular, that changes/
>>>
>>> This reminds me too much of not elegant French constructions, I  
>>> could not have thought of that :-)
>>> But if you think that's alright, feel free to implement it!
>>
>> DONE [1]...
>>
>> [1]  
>> http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/wiki/index.php?title=Draft_issues_page_take2&diff=6213&oldid=6212
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Carlo Meghini
> Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie della Informazione [ ISTI ]
> Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche [ CNR ]
> Via G. Moruzzi, 1 - 56124 Pisa - Italy
> Tel: +39 050 3152893       E-Mail: Carlo.Meghini@isti.cnr.it
> Fax: +39 050 3153464       Web: nmis.isti.cnr.it/meghini/
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>



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Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
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Received on Tuesday, 6 September 2011 16:30:07 UTC