Talk:Emblem

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (August 2006) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

[edit] Symbol/Emblem

Thus the distinction bteen a symbol and an emblem is that the thing identeified by an emblem in some sense "owns" or "knows about" its emblem. Or perhaps: a thing may generally have only one emblem (in a context), but any number of things may symbolise it. Or perhaps: an emblem directly refers to the thing it is the emblem of (it's dereference is intrinsic to it), whereas a symbol depends on who reads it. An emblem, of course, als needs to be read, but it's reasonable to say that a person who dereferences an emblem may do so wrongly.

class Symbol implements Thing { 
  // a symbol can be anything, but not everything is a symbol
  // although, maybe it can be
}

abstract class Referrer {
  abstract boolean knowsMeaningOf(Symbol s);
  abstract Thing deref(Symbol s);
}

abstract class HasEmblem {
  Emblem getEmblem();
}

class Emblem extends Symbol, Referrer {
  NamedThing thing;
  abstract boolean knowsMeaningOf(Symbol s) {
    return s == this;
  }
  NamedThing deref(Symbol s) { 
    if(s==this) return thing;
    throw "I don't know how to deref " + s;
  }
}

abstract class NamedThing {
  Emblem getEmblem();
}