Todd Boyle wrote: > At 01:49 PM 9/11/2003, Ed Gerck wrote: > > > The DNS is neither hierarchy nor hierarchic control. > > The DNS is just an ontology. > > Neither the domain name system nor its value domain > seems to bear much similarity to an ontology, or system of > notation, or scheme for storing an ontology etc. > http://users.bestweb.net/~sowa/ontology/ is a place I go to read > about ontology, or the DAML or RDF sites, etc.
You need a better ref ;-) The DNS is hierarchical only in that the totality of names in the tree is a hierarchy, but there need be no meaningful relationship between the names at any level of the DNS name tree. Hence, the DNS is not more than what an ontology can be used to represent. Note also that DNS names are just references and have no meaning per se. You can further look at IP addresses as being hierarchical, but only for the purpose of routing on groups of addresses by virtue of their being assigned to be reachable through some specific address that looks like it is higher up in the "address tree". But IPs are just references too, with no meaning per se. They exist in some routing tables, where their behavior is defined. Since there is absolutely no algorithmic rule for mapping DNS names to IP addresses, this is what the DNS system does by using software (such as BIND) to respond to queries that consist of the fully qualified DNS names, returning an IP address that has been arbitrarily assigned to the name by some DNS/IP name/address administration for that zone. > ... > Sorry for my peevish tone, which is not aimed at you! but > general frustration with the whole value proposition of DNS, > and the dynamics it delivers, to the individual. With the computing > power available today it seems to me we should have higher > expectations from an addressing scheme. In fact, the least expectations we put in the DNS the better it will work! Simplicity is king. Making the DNS "richer" or "smarter" will result in more problems, more unexpected behavior, more unforeseen flaws. I have catalogued more than 40 basic flaws in the DNS... and the solution begins by making it simpler. Cheers, Ed Gerck
