> Stephan Michels wrote: > > >On Wed, 8 Jan 2003, Sylvain Wallez wrote: > > > >>>Anyway, I think your arguments are better than mine (sniff). > >>> > >>>So, we have a TraversableSource or HierarchicalSource or ...? > >>> > >>I'm not a native speaker, but the definition of traversable given by > >>dictionary.com makes me prefer hierarchical... > > > >You could traverse the hierarchy ;-) > > You're right. Given the answer I gave to Nicola Ken that this interface > makes sense only if the URI space is hierarchical _and_ traversable, > this could be a good name after all. > > Any opinion of a native or better speaker out there ? >
Well, at least I can help you there - I speak English pretty good! ;) Whatever traversable means in common speech, its meaning in this context would be most intuitively drawn from DOM traversal, which IIUC is a parallel concept to what you are discussing. It implies the ability to _learn_ about parents, children and siblings and to _reach_ them. Hierarchical seems only to imply that a hierarchy exists - not that it can be used for accessing related items. Therefore, it seems to me that some resources are hierarchical but not necessarily traversable (in a source resolving context). For instance, take http://xml.apache.org/cocoon/userdocs/generators/generators.html You could say its "parent" is http://xml.apache.org/cocoon/userdocs/index.html, since that is the containing page, or maybe it's http://xml.apache.org/cocoon/userdocs/generators/ (BTW, should indexing be allowed on apache.org sites like that?). In that sort of context, The resources are arranged hierarchically, but how would the Source return that knowledge? So, if you're open to a shot from the "peanut gallery" my opinion would be that Traversable communicates the additional possibilities of some types of sources (file systems, for example). HTH, Geoff Howard --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
