Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]From: Lee, Jonathan <Jonathan.Lee@hrcc.on.ca> Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 1999 05:20 Subject: RE: [Leica] paperless??? > Digital means a symbolic representaiton of something > in NUMBERS. Digital means a symbolic representation, period. It is somewhat of a misnomer, but that's what it means in practice. It is used even when the symbols are not numbers per se. > The Dead Sea Scrolls are not a digital recording because > they used WORDS, which are symbols but are not > digits. All forms of the written word are digital representations, because they use symbols to represent information. Paintings are analog representations, because they represent information using a direct physical model of that information. The following representations of 3 and 4 are analog representations: ****** ******** The exact value represented depends on the exact physical length of each line. The following representations of 3 and 4 are digital: 3 4 The exact value represented depends on the meaning of each symbol. Similarly, a circle drawn on a piece of paper is an analog representation, but a mathematical equation that describes a circle is a digital representation. -- Anthony