Re: Inconsistencies in our approach
On Fri, 1 Aug 2003 21:50:13 -0700, John H Robinson, IV <jaqque@debian.org> said:
> Manoj Srivastava wrote:
>> On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 16:38:43 -0700, John H Robinson, IV
>> <jaqque@debian.org> said:
>>
>> > as a mostly passive observer at this point, the only data we are
>> > missing is a clear working definition to separate out Software,
>> > Data, and Documentation.
>>
>> My feeling is that there may not be any such clear cut distinction.
> i am going to try to take a stab at it:
> hardware: physical computing devices software: logical information
> stored by hardware devices that can be used for computation.
> this allows us to break software into three (or more) areas:
> program: software that provides instructions to hardware
> data: input to software
> documentation: information about software or data
> Drawer 'O': software that does not fit in the above three
> categories.
OK. I have a program (for my day job), where we have pluggable
probes deployed by a sensor program, as and when the sensor deems
fit. Initially, the sensor does not know how many probes have been
installed on the local machine, it goes out and discovers the number
and nature of the probes in an initial resource discovery phase.
Each probe, when installed, installs an XML document that can
be converted into HTML or PDF by applying a sinple xsl transform;
this is where all the documentation oabout the probe lives.
This files is, then documentation, no?
The sensor reads the same file, applies another xsl transform,
and gets to know the capabilities of the probe, and how to classify
it, and publishes the data to a central trading service.
The file is configuration data, no?
Now, when a request for data comes in, a generic probe handler
is deployed, which reads the same file, applies a transform, and is
handed a seris of instructions on how to deploy the probe and
commuunicate with it.
This file is program code, no?
You disambiguate my program for me, and I'll believe there
are rigid classifications of software which are feasible.
manoj
--
The forest is safe because a lion lives therein and the lion is safe
because it lives in a forest. Likewise the friendship of persons
rests on mutual help. Laukikanyay.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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