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What A Document Means

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: What A Document Means
• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2002 09:50:56 -0600

In http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/docmeaning.html

we are given a one page attempt to define what "a document means".

First what a document is "on the web":

"A document on the Web is a stream of bits identified with a specific MIME type. The MIME type indicates to the processor how it may interpret the stream of bits to decompose it into a sequence of characters, for example, or a specific bitmap image."

So far so good.  That is a systemic definition.  There is a list with possible 
solutions for determining in an "unambiguous way" what a document "means".
One possible answer is 

"The document forms a complete information set. Although expensive in the general case, it's not entirely unreasonable to imagine applications that examine an entire information set."

Can someone explain this?  What is an "information set" and how does 
one determine "completeness" for two ends of a single transaction or communication?

len

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