Re: There Are No Metadocuments

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 UTC