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-----Original Message----- From: Bullard, Claude L (Len) [mailto:clbullar@i...] Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 5:16 PM To: 'DuCharme, Bob (LNG-CHO)'; xml-dev@l... Subject: RE: Two link questions >One has to understand that hypertext is a retrograde database >with navigation controls embedded in context. I always have problems when the dialogue gets too rarified, unless I'm the one doing the rarifying of course. Can you add some support to the term retrograde in that sentence? >That doesn't >mean it isn't useful. Carts in some cultures are a major >means of transportation and hauling. In others, they are >children's wagons. The metaphor seems strained; for technology I often think metaphors are not the way to draw relations, as often a too vast a leap of cognition (for me at any rate) is required. Perhaps allegory would be better here, actually I'm getting confused, is it the hypertext that is a retrograde database that is like a cart? Your argument seems to be that hypertext is analogous to a cart in that a cart is an outmoded form of transportation, I doubt that anyone has ever existed that has called a form of transportation x outmoded without a form of transportation y in mind for replacing it, what is the form of transportation y in this case and what are its benefits?
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