Re: Order & meaning in a proposition

In message <zbEcc.7515$qb.3889_at_newssvr32.news.prodigy.com>, Eric Kaun <ekaun_at_yahoo.com> writes
>"Dawn M. Wolthuis" <dwolt_at_tincat-group.com> wrote in message
>news:c4ur9d$ud0$1_at_news.netins.net...
>> Close, very close - it is not just when we model it, but depending on how
>we
>> model it -- we can lose more with one model than another. Data models are
>> important for being able to apply predicate logic for querying the data,
>for
>> example. But a data model that captures the ordering of compound nouns in
>a
>> proposition retains more information (even if not obviously more data)
>than
>> one that randomly orders the nouns.
>
>Not necessarily - part of modeling is also ignoring irrelevant details. If
>the order is relevant, it should be modeled as such.
>
How do you decide the difference between relevant and irrelevant?

And why should YOU decide? What do you do when the PHB you interviewed changes his mind, or discovers he got it wrong?

Surely the question should not be "what to keep and what to throw away", but "why throw it away if we don't have to?".

Cheers,
Wol

-- 
Anthony W. Youngman - wol at thewolery dot demon dot co dot uk
HEX wondered how much he should tell the Wizards. He felt it would not be a
good idea to burden them with too much input. Hex always thought of his reports
as Lies-to-People.
The Science of Discworld : (c) Terry Pratchett 1999