ArticleRead (9): Recent Contributions to the Mathematical Theory of Communication

Recent Contributions to the Mathematical Theory of Communication，By Warren Weaver, In Claude Shannon, A Mathematical Theory of Communication，IL：The University of Illinois Press，1949

What are concepts the theory develops?

1. Deal with the statistical character of a whole ensemble of messages
2. In statistical terms the two words information & uncertainty are partners
3. “missing information”*==* the entropy *==* the language of arithmetic *==* the language of language

Indentify three levels of communication problems as table 1 shows:


Schematic diagram of a general communication system and three main categories of communication systems classification as figure 1 shows:


Schematic diagram of a general communication system: minor additions for Level B as figure 2 shows:


Note: This review was mainly completed as a homework while taking the Humanity Informatics Class lectured by Professor Ching-Chun Hsieh in Dec. 2006.

ArticleRead (3): A Definition of Information

A Definition of Information , By A.D. Madden, Aslib Proceedings vol. 52, No.9, p.343-, 2000.10.

In his article A.D. Madden has drawn some attention to the interpretation of information in the aspect of context.

After reviewing literatures defining information: as a representation of knowledge; as data in the environment; as part of the communication process; as a resource or commodity, the author has an attempt to further defining “information” in a perspective of “informing contexts”.

Three major elements in his Information-in-Context Model are defined as: “authorial context” which is a message being originated, “readership context” which is a message being received and interpreted, as well as “the message” which is the information being transmitted.

The idea of taking information reception and interpretation within personal and community paradigms in social-cultural contexts is valuable for most understating of the definition of information. However, the author rephrases the definition of information for the context-reliant model of information reception in the conclusion without clear explanation about “stimulus”, “system” and “system relationship” . The rephrases of the definition makes the information more blur in the end.

The general idea of Madden’s definition of information can be summarized as the figure shown.

Note: This review was mainly completed as a homework while taking the Humanity Informatics Class lectured by Professor Ching-Chun Hsieh in December 2006.

ArticleRead (2): Semiotics and Programming Languages

“Semiotics and Programming Languages” By H. Zemanek,, In Communications of the ACM, vol. 9, no. 3, Mar. 1966, pp. 139-143.

Almost, a half-decade ago, in the 1965 ACM Programming Languages and Pragmatics Conference, we have Heinz Zemanek’s one article highlighting the issue of semiotics particularly in the pragmatic aspect as a relation between programming languages (PL) and their application fields.

Taking sign theory of the logic schools from two Charles: C.S. Peirce and C.W. Morris, Zemanek has adopted semiotic concepts and terminologies to programming languages, i.e. syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

According to Morris’s pragmatic definition, which is different from Peirce, – the study of the relation of signs to interpreters, Zemanek argues: “There is always pragmatics because there is always an observer and because no language makes sense without interpretation.” The justification of pragmatics has been made by the existence of interpreters, interpretation and their relations to the PL.

Two types of pragmatics have been further identified as: “the mechanical pragmatics” and “the human pragmatics” since the principle of PL from Zemanek’s definition is the communication of programs between computers, from man to computers, from man to man, as well as from man to himself.

One issue concerning Zemanek’s prediction about “the central application of pragmatics around the computer” that deserves to be stressed is to make it possible for computer to “speak more and more and to restrict the human user in the practical situation to point at YES or NO, or some more equally simple choices, while the computer talks.” The interest in the study of how semiotics advance the computer and programming languages to reach this goal reveals a compelling vision to be crafted further on.

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