isomorphism discussion...

[delikat]

>that preserves the structure being considered.
>   Well, people could contribute information using
>different views on the same objects,
>yet only the semantical differences,
>not the syntactical ones, are taken into account.
>E.g. I use french keywords, variable names, and comments everywhere,
>you use english;
>I use hexadecimal, you use decimal;
>I use EBCDIC, you use ASCII;
>I use ";" as a separator, you use it as a terminator.
>You like 8-character tabulations,
>I prefer 4-character tabulations, etc.
>   More abstractly,
>you represent lists with cons cells, whereas I use arrays;
>you represent things in a way, I in some other.
>   Syntax shouldn't count. Only semantics should.
>We want to manipulate objects, not representations.
>Information about different syntactic views on the objects
>may be merged or discarded.
>   Of course, what is actually a difference in views
>might appear to be a difference in semantics,
>until the isomorphism is pinpointed.
>My point is that the diff utility should be
>able to take into account such a dynamically defined isomorphism,
>so that we could both work consistently on the *same* object,
>and merge modifications,
>while each keeping one's preferred view on it.
>

Multi-lingual / view based / version aware objects....

I have found lots of uses for this kind of system, but one thing that
always gives me trouble is the internal represetation, particularly
of function descriptions.  It has to be significantly generic so that
conversion to any form is as natural as can be.  that is to say the 
internal representation must contain only ideas or concepts and
references to objects or attributes.

I believe this is one of those items that needs to be put on the 'implement
later' list, A VERY LONG LIST.  this whole list is the reason for my selecting
perl to implement my current approximation.  
Dav Delikat ; computer analyst/thinker/father
Jody Delikat ; writer/mother
delikat@mixcom.com ; http://WWW.ripon.EDU/Alumni/DelikatD/index.html
"A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be
tightened into place, but a seed to be planted and to bear more
seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea."
   -- John Ciardi