Re: data & code

"mAsterdam" <mAsterdam_at_vrijdag.org> wrote in message news:40b51e92$0$37789$e4fe514c_at_news.xs4all.nl...
> x wrote:
> > Alfredo Novoa wrote:
> >>Dawn M. Wolthuis wrote:
> >>>I'm really curious what the huge distinction is (as
> >>>in "totally different").
> >>
> >>They have nothing in common.
> >>
> >>>Much of the data that I see queried is derived.
> >>
> >>And code is a way to specify the derivation rules.
> >>It has nothing to do with data.
> >
> > How do you call this:
> > 31 c0 b9 10 00 40 01 c0 49 e3 fb
>
> I don't know what Alfredo would call it.
> I'ld call it a meaningless string of characters.
>
> It looks somewhat like a part of hexdump,
> and I might (if I were in another mood) even try
> to ASCII or EBCDIC decode it under that assumption.
> It might make sense in some language (probably english
> or some programming language in this context).
>
> As it is, it is neither code nor data.
>
> glossary - code
> glossary - data
>
> Some (e.g. prolog) don't care about the difference.
> Some (e.g. NIAM/ORM) don't care about what they have in common.
>
> Does anybody dare to try to give some
> reasonably acceptable descriptions?
>
> BTW I am still looking for 'type'.

For the definition of type?

Def: The type of a variable v is the set of all valid values for v.

Note: The "type" of a value only makes sense to me as short-hand means of discussing the type of the variable whose value is this. Values outside of the context of a variable have no type as far as I'm concerned, even if they have a representation that looks like representations of some type. Received on Thu May 27 2004 - 01:20:22 CEST