hypothesis: all naming is distributed naming
naming is associating one object (the name, a linguistic expression) with another (the named thing, the denotation of the name) for the purpose of communicating or storing information about the named thing.
But communication only makes sense among two or more entities, and storage is essentially communitation with one's future self. So there are always multiple entities involved, which makes it "distributed naming."
None the less, it's a nice way to think about naming.
Specifically, how does one entity create a name and communicate its meaning to another, preferably with a minimum of conflict.
Sandro Hawke
$Date: 2001/03/23 19:17:21 $