48 lines
5.3 KiB
HTML
48 lines
5.3 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>canonical</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../C.html" title="C"/><link rel="previous" href="candygrammar.html" title="candygrammar"/><link rel="next" href="careware.html" title="careware"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">canonical</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="candygrammar.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">C</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="careware.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="canonical"/><dt xmlns="" id="canonical"><b>canonical</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">adj.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [very common; historically, ‘according to religious
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law’] The usual or standard state or manner of something. This word
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has a somewhat more technical meaning in mathematics. Two formulas such as
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<tt class="literal">9 + x</tt> and <tt class="literal">x +
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9</tt> are said to be equivalent because they mean the same
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thing, but the second one is in <span class="firstterm">canonical
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form</span> because it is written in the usual way, with the highest
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power of <tt class="literal">x</tt> first. Usually there are fixed
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rules you can use to decide whether something is in canonical form. The
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jargon meaning, a relaxation of the technical meaning, acquired its present
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loading in computer-science culture largely through its prominence in
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Alonzo Church's work in computation theory and mathematical logic (see
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<a href="../K/Knights-of-the-Lambda-Calculus.html"><i class="glossterm">Knights of the Lambda Calculus</i></a>). Compare
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<a href="../V/vanilla.html"><i class="glossterm">vanilla</i></a>.</p><p>Non-technical academics do not use the adjective
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‘canonical’ in any of the senses defined above with any
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regularity; they do however use the nouns <span class="firstterm">canon</span> and <span class="firstterm">canonicity</span> (not **canonicalness or
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**canonicality). The <span class="firstterm">canon</span> of a given
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author is the complete body of authentic works by that author (this usage
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is familiar to Sherlock Holmes fans as well as to literary scholars).
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‘<span class="emphasis"><em>The</em></span> canon’ is the body of works in a
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given field (e.g., works of literature, or of art, or of music) deemed
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worthwhile for students to study and for scholars to investigate.</p><p>The word ‘canon’ has an interesting history. It derives
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ultimately from the Greek
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<span class="foreignphrase"><i class="foreignphrase">κανον</i></span> (akin to the
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English ‘cane’) referring to a reed. Reeds were used for
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measurement, and in Latin and later Greek the word ‘canon’
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meant a rule or a standard. The establishment of a canon of scriptures
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within Christianity was meant to define a standard or a rule for the
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religion. The above non-techspeak academic usages stem from this instance
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of a defined and accepted body of work. Alongside this usage was the
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promulgation of ‘canons’ (‘rules’) for the
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government of the Catholic Church. The techspeak usages (“<span class="quote">according
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to religious law</span>”) derive from this use of the Latin
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‘canon’.</p><p>Hackers invest this term with a playfulness that makes an ironic
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contrast with its historical meaning. A true story: One Bob Sjoberg, new
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at the MIT AI Lab, expressed some annoyance at the incessant use of jargon.
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Over his loud objections, GLS and RMS made a point of using as much of it
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as possible in his presence, and eventually it began to sink in. Finally,
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in one conversation, he used the word <span class="firstterm">canonical</span> in jargon-like fashion without
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thinking. Steele: “<span class="quote">Aha! We've finally got you talking jargon
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too!</span>” Stallman: “<span class="quote">What did he say?</span>” Steele: “<span class="quote">Bob
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just used ‘canonical’ in the canonical way.</span>”</p><p>Of course, canonicality depends on context, but it is implicitly
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defined as the way <span class="emphasis"><em>hackers</em></span> normally expect things to
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be. Thus, a hacker may claim with a straight face that ‘according to
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religious law’ is <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span> the canonical meaning of
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<span class="firstterm">canonical</span>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="candygrammar.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../C.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="careware.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">candygrammar </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> careware</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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