Re: Thinking about MINUS

From: paul c <toledobythesea_at_oohay.ac>
Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2007 04:34:01 GMT
Message-ID: <ZWEoh.583070$1T2.3282@pd7urf2no>

Bob Badour wrote:
> Marshall wrote:
>

>> On Jan 8, 3:32 am, paul c <toledobythe..._at_oohay.ac> wrote:
>>
>>> Marshall wrote:...
>>>
>>>> Ah, but when we are joining, which is to say unifying, two relations,
>>>> and the two relations each make different, *incompatible* claims
>>>> about the type associated with a particular attribute name, then
>>>> I would say that well meets the criteria for being "contradictory."
>>>>
>>>> ...Well, if I have 10 Navel Oranges and 10 Tangerine Oranges and I 
>>>> ask how
>>>
>>>
>>> many Florida Oranges I've got, I would hope the answer would be zero,
>>> not "contradiction".
>>
>>
>> I would hope so too, but I wouldn't consider that to be an example
>> of a type error. Hmmm. I need some kind of metaphor that illustrates
>> that you're comparing two different kinds of things that shouldn't
>> be compared, ideally that involves oranges and maybe one other
>> kind of fruit, but I can't think of anything. Darn.

>
>
> Actually, the example is just imprecise and perhaps suggests a failure
> to think about type sufficiently. If the only information given is "10
> Navel Oranges" and "10 Tangerine Oranges", one can only compare the
> values lexically. In that case, the number of oranges lexically matching
> "Florida Oranges" is zero.
>
> However, if the above is an imprecise/informal description of a
> predicate like "I have a Quantity of Fruit of each Cultivar" then one
> cannot even express the question "Where did the fruit come from?" or
> "How many of the orange fruit came from Florida?" given only the
> predicate above.
>
> This raises the question: What is the data type of the value "Navel
> Oranges" used above? Or perhaps the value wasn't even used directly and
> the better question is: What is the data type of the value "10 Navel
> Oranges" used above?
> ...

Bob, thanks in any event, maybe you've hit the nail I was hammering at.   Is "what is the data type?" the same as "what is the possible use?", given that it is a simple computer with a simple instruction set that is giving the answer?

p Received on Mon Jan 08 2007 - 22:34:01 CST