[om-list] Re: Cyc example

Mark Butler butlerm at middle.net
Fri Sep 29 11:32:21 EDT 2000


Luke is right - a namespace should be treated as a formal context for names. 
i.e. a namespace is a context, but not all contexts are namespaces.  Contexts
can be ill-defined and inconsistent whereas a proper namespace requires
precise definition and a standard nomenclature.

We do not have to have a single approach to external naming.  It would be
useful to support both automated merging of entities in the same formal
namespace as well as guided merging of entities that only have informal name
assignments based on heuristic pattern matching algorithms.

- Mark

Luke Call wrote:
> 
> I'm using context to mean whatever a human uses to decide what word he
> uses or the meaning he understands for a word, in a given situation.
> Namespaces are rigid limits to where a token has any meaning (Mark could
> define it better) but they seem different to me. However, if we have a
> "loose" approach to (external) naming as described in my last email, I
> guess you could say contexts function like namespaces, at least for the
> human interface(s). Hmmm..


-- 
Mark Butler	       ( butlerm at middle.net )
Software Engineer  
Epic Systems              
(801)-451-4583




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