Re: Mixing OO and DB

On Feb 11, 2:05 am, David BL <davi..._at_iinet.net.au> wrote:
> On Feb 11, 3:29 am, JOG <j..._at_cs.nott.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> > On Feb 10, 5:45 pm, "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mail..._at_dmitry-kazakov.de>
> > wrote:
> > > [What is data, in your opinion?
>
> > Data. Lots of datum - from latin, meaning statement of fact. Predicate
> > and value in FOL. A value without description is of course just
> > noise.
>
> Latin datum is past participle of dare, "to give". What make you say
> data is necessarily a set of propositions?

The OED. "Facts, esp. numerical facts, collected together for reference or information." The etymology stems from 'dare', because facts are always communicated or "given". I understand of course that the term is thrown around wantonly and ambiguosly nowadays, but as data theorists, we shouldn't be party to that imo ;)

> Are you suggesting a value
> is meaningless without a proposition? Why can't a datum just be a
> value?

Because ta value has to be associated with something. Hofstadter gave a good example of this with the groove modulations on a vinyl record. To us they are (musical) data, to an alien not knowing their context, it is not. You need the context.

> Wouldn't you say a recorded image is data?

Of course, so long as I know it's an image. If its just ones and zero's stored in a computer, without anyway of telling they represent a picture, then it is simply noise. Received on Mon Feb 11 2008 - 12:07:28 CET