Re: either strengthen or retract httpRange-14(a)

On Fri, 2012-03-02 at 09:29 -0500, Jonathan A Rees wrote:
[ . . . ]
>(Some say that ambiguity is inherent in communication, so
> disambiguation is futile, but this is rhetorical trickery.  This is
> like saying democracy should not be attempted because perfect
> democracy is impossible.  In fact particular ambiguities such as this
> one can be, and are often, addressed.)

If you're referring to me, you have grossly misunderstood my view.

Ambiguity *is* inherent, and that *does* imply that it is
architecturally pointless to mandate a distinction along one particular
axis of ambiguity, such as attempting to mandate a distinction between
"information resources" and "non-information resources".  However, the
architecture must *enable* a URI owner to convey a URI definition that
is as fine-grained and precise as the URI owner *chooses* to make it. 

Thus it is important that the architecture *enable* a URI owner to
distinguish between an "information resource" and a "non-information
resource" -- or between one information resource and another, or between
two things along *any* desired axis of distinction -- but the
architecture should not attempt to mandate that distinction, because it
doesn't *need* to.  There is an important difference.  


-- 
David Booth, Ph.D.
http://dbooth.org/

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reflect those of his employer.

Received on Saturday, 24 March 2012 02:07:45 UTC