- From: Ed Davies <edavies@nildram.co.uk>
- Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 13:31:53 +0000
- To: Pat Hayes <phayes@ihmc.us>
- CC: www-tag@w3.org
Pat Hayes wrote: > ... > I suggest that it is not, and cannot possibly be, either of these. Or > indeed any other English paraphrase of some communication act between > human beings. GET is not a conversation, it is a mechanical transfer > protocol. We can of course speak metaphorically using this language, > just as we speak of machine "instructions" and software "agents" and > so on: our technical vocabulary is riddled with these suggestive > usages. But sometimes it is vitally important to remind ourselves > that these really are only suggestive metaphors. Computer hardware > does not obey as humans obey orders; software does not act as humans > act; and GET does not request, assert, claim or suggest in any human > senses of these words. It simply initiates a process which results in > bytes being transferred from one place to another on a network. OK, so you suggest that if, a few nights ago, I put out an oversize mousetrap and finished up with a little neighbourhood kid dressed as a witch flaying around on my front lawn with a few broken bones I'd have a good defence in court that it was only a suggestive metaphor that the mechanical actions of the trap were obeying my orders? It simply initiates a process which results in a bar of metal being transferred from one place to another on a wooden baseboard, perhaps? Software does not run in a legal vacuum (or a social, or, if you like, a moral one either). The server acts on behalf of its administrator and the browser on behalf of its user. Communication between the browser and the server is a proxy for communication between the two people. The exact meaning of that communication is defined, in part, by a stack of relevant standards from various bodies. Ed Davies.
Received on Monday, 13 November 2006 13:32:56 UTC