Sara,
I have taken your classification and restructured it into a language called
Backus-Naur that is used to describe languages, descriptions, sentences,
etc. I have taken the liberty of adding a few descriptions, but this is
basically yours. It looks cumbersome but it isn't too bad. It is a way to
check to see if a sentence belongs to a language, or in our case, does a
description of a dial have an un ambiguous meaning in our language?
Form of the language:
[] means an optional item
{} means a required item
... means an item can be repeated
| means is one of many choices
<> means an item name
+ means this item is assume if nothing is specified
A dial is describe by the following sentence:
SUNDIALS IS [<mobility>] [<location>] [<sun-motion>] [<form>]
[<historical type>] [<face orientation>]
[<gnomon type>] [<hours>] [<furniture>] [<correction> ]
where
<mobility> is portable | fixed+
<form> is [cannon | compass | floating | polyhedral |
diptych | magnetic | ring]...
<location> is universal | independent*
<sun-motion> is [hour angle+ | azimuth | altitude]...
<historical type> is Butterfield | Oughtred | Regiomontanus | de Rojas |
Augsburg
<face orientation> is horizontal+ | vertical | declining | inclining |
equatorial | polar
<gnomon type> is string | pin | rod | garden+**
<hours> is SHOWING {Babylonian | Italian | local | mean}...
HOURS
<furniture is WITH {LINES|MARKS} {OF|FOR} {seasons | Dates
| declension | hours till dark }...
<correction> is CORRECTED FOR {eot | longitude | daylight Savings
time}...
Notes:
* Independent means there are no adjustments for new locations, universal
implies adjustments
** traditional triangle shape of horizontal dials
+ Default if not mentioned
A simple example would be "Sundial" which would mean a fixed hour angle,
horizontal, garden gnomon dial.
A very complex example would be a "fixed universal azimuth polyhedral
Butterfield type string dial, SHOWING Babylonian and Italian HOURS, WITH
LINE OF declension and a MARK FOR my dad's birthday, CORRECTED FOR EOT and
DST". But that type of dial needs a complex descriptions.
The question then is: Can all descriptions of dials fit into the language
above, and still produce intelligent sounding names?
I welcome all to test out the descriptions of various dials and see if they
fit. I'm sure there would have to be some additions and tweaking of
attributes, but it's a start.
++ron
