On Tue, 3 Dec 1996, John Kunze wrote:
> Yes, I mentioned that in another message and it's made as a side-point
> in the User Guide. Jon Knight couldn't see the utility, although I
> believe he was thinking purely about pragmatic implications for just
> the Resource element (in which the utility is pretty limited) as opposed
> to the larger, very useful implications for allowing either "pointers"
> or "immediate" data content for all metadata elements.
My main argument was including the whole resource; I very well aware that
there are going to be identifiers of all sorts of shapes and sizes
appearing in other Elements. I still don't see that as a reason to rename
the Identifier element though.
> > I think it would be better to think of metadata as just a particular
> > type of structure. Would one use the name "Identifier" for a field in
> > a structure that points to another structure? This is like calling it
> > "Pointer" or "Reference". This applies even for a language that only
> > allows one kind of value, say a pointer to a record, rather than
> > either a pointer or an embedded record.
> >
> > It seems strange to me that people have a hard time understanding this
> > simple concept.
>
> Exactly. I thought the programmers on the meta2 list would instantly
> see how ludicrous the name Identifier looks from this point of view.
> (I think the argument works with non-programmers as well.)
As a programmer I really can't see the problem with calling the element
that is destined to hold an identifier for the resource, "Identifier". I
also can see the problem in including identifiers for external resources
in other elements such as Relation. It seems eminently sensible and
logical to me. Maybe its because I realise that DC metadata _isn't_ a
programming language?
Tatty bye,
Jim'll
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jon "Jim'll" Knight, Researcher, Sysop and General Dogsbody, Dept. Computer
Studies, Loughborough University of Technology, Leics., ENGLAND. LE11 3TU.
* I've found I now dream in Perl. More worryingly, I enjoy those dreams. *
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