RE: Principle of Least Power

My instinct is to put this principle in a list of 
possibly useful theories about choosing tools for 
handling data.  I don't fault the TAG for not being 
able to explain more clearly the muddy problems of 
data modeling and language application.  Few  
have done this very well.  Sadly, one of the pioneers 
who did give it a good try, Bill Kent, passed away 
recently as noted on the CG list.

http://www.bkent.net/Doc/darxrp.htm

I recommend the section on Reality and Tools.  I 
believe these principles for web technology fall 
into a class of theoretical musings which some 
need and therefore guidance is given, but which 
are easy to misinterpret and misapply and therefore 
will be a source of confusion as well as clarity.
Caveat emptor.

len


From: noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com [mailto:noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com]

Claude Bullard writes

> We seem to be unclear about how to apply it and 
> even less clear about how to explain its application 
> to a non-information theory specialist.

I hope that the new draft just posted will deal with some of these 
concerns [1].  I don't think the point is to explore in detail the nuances 
of Chomsky hiearchies or similar formal metrics of complexity.  Rather, 
this is a finding that is intended to remind a broad audience of Web 
contributors that they should be thinking hard about a variety of ways in 
which complex or powerful languages can obscure the information being 
conveyed on the web.

Received on Tuesday, 14 February 2006 14:24:46 UTC