Lucien Stals wrote: > It seems to me that many people here have different ideas about what > semantic means. It would be helpful it we shared a common > understanding in our conversations. I welcome, and invite, a *polite > and professional* debate about the use of the term "semantic" as it > relates to our work on the web.
I have also noticed that the term "semantic" seems to be understood differently by different people, especially with respect to websites and coding. There are probably many reasons for this, but one reason is that there really are at least two different definitions in use: one is based on the proposal/theory of the "Semantic Web", and the other is based on linguistics and the theory of how language produces "meaning". These two definitions are similar and related, but not identical. And sometimes it appears that people slip back and forth from one definition to another. I'm not sure that I can define what "semantic" means in each case, but I would nevertheless highlight these two cases as two different uses of the word, and as one reason it can be difficult to come up with a common language to discuss "semantics" as they relate to web standards. Phil. ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
