Philosophy

In writing xworker, I encountered some philosophical problems, which are related to Meta-Thing.

1.Meta-Thing

Meta-Thing is found by xworker when writing the model editor. If we redefine the structure of XML in a simple way, that is, to describe an XML node with < thing name = "XXX" / > and to describe the attributes in an XML node with < attribute name = "XXX" / > then we will find that the structure of any XML structure is unique, and this unique structure is called Meta-Thing.

Meta-Thing is represented in XML as follows.

<thing name="thing">
     <attribute name="name">
     <thing name="attribute">
          <attribute name="name"/>
     </thing>
     <thing name="thing">
         .......
     </thing>
</thing>

This is an XML with infinite deep nodes, where the child node < thing name = "thing" > is a duplicate of the root node.

1.1.The role of Meta-Thing

Meta-Thing is used in the editing model. Because the model can be represented by XML, the way to edit the model here is to edit the XML by using the structure of XML. Simply speaking, if you know the structure of XML, you can dynamically generate XML forms through this structure to edit XML.

1.2.World & Thing

In dynamic model programming, models are used to represent all kinds of things, such as classes, objects and behaviors. Therefore, models are sometimes called things, and containers for managing models are called the world.

2.Philosophical issues

When we call models things and use concepts such as the world, we will find that Meta-Thing coincide with the following philosophical problems.

2.1.The creator of the world

Meta-Thing is originally used to edit models. They use the method of editing XML through the structure of XML. Because Meta-Thing is the structure of any model (XML)'s structure, then can directly or indirectly edit any model (XML) through Meta-Thing.

Therefore, when we use models to represent all kinds of things, we will find that in systems written with dynamic models, any things can be created directly or indirectly through Meta-Thing. And the structure of the Meta-Thing is still its own, through which it can also edit itself, so the Meta-Thing is still its own father and son.

2.1.Having a name is the mother of all things

When we use Meta-Thing, we can find that they are naming nodes and attributes, so we can say that the first step to create everything is naming, which coincides with Laozi's famous saying.

3.Epilogue

Through the above philosophical problems, we can feel that Meta-Thing have special significance. However, it took a long time to be clear, so at present, I just know that it may be related to Philosophy of language, but it is beyond our research ability and scope.

Fortunately, the above philosophical issues do not affect the development and use of xworker. If you are interested in philosophy, maybe you can study it.