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Re: Is binary a "language"?

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Willem <willem@toad.stack.nl> writes:
> Todd Carnes wrote:
> ) If you accept the definition of "language" as "a particular kind of
> ) system for encoding and decoding information", which is one of the
> ) definitions given at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language, then
> ) "binary" DOES qualify as a language.
>
> No it doesn't.  Not by itself.  You also need a system to assign
> informational meanings to the encoding.  That system is the language.
>
> In other words: You can't encode information with binary *alone*, you
> also need some kind of definition/system that tells you what the binary
> endocing *means*.

Like XML?

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Nokia
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"

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Re: Is binary a "language"? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2011-03-30 11:59 -0700

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