Last week's post on the rule of application noted that this rule
has been woven into the schedules of the DDC and promised this follow-up post
with further examples. In the meantime,
Juli's post on recycling plastics concluded in this manner:
It should come as no surprise that
works on recycling specific materials are classed according to the rule of
application: recycling applied to plastics classed with plastics, recycling
applied to a specific kind of plastic classed with the kind of plastic,
recycling of specific kinds of wastes classed with specific kinds of wastes. .
. . Nevertheless, it is still necessary
to check the Relative Index and notes to see exactly what DDC numbers should be
used.
This
post proceeds along two avenues. We will
start with two large-scale implementations of the rule of application in the
schedules. Then we will consider several
recent developments in the schedules that have been driven by the rule of
application.
One
large-scale implementation of the rule of application is found in 610 Medicine and health with regard to
the relationship between 615
Pharmacology and therapeutics and 616
Diseases. This relationship is so
crucial that the rule of application finds explicit statement in the schedules,
even though it is standard operating procedure (pun intended!). At 615.5
Therapeutics we find the following scatter class-elsewhere note:
Class therapies applied to a specific disease or group of diseases
with the disease or group of diseases in 616–618, plus notation 06 from table
under 616.1–616.9, notation 06 from table under 617, or notation 06 from table
under 618.1–618.8, e.g., therapies for cardiovascular diseases 616.106
And
at 615.7 Pharmacokinetics we find
the following scatter class-elsewhere note:
Class use of a drug to treat a specific disease or group of
diseases with the disease or group of diseases in 616–618, plus notation 061
from table under 616.1–616.9, notation 061 from table under 617, or notation
061 from table under 618.1–618.8, e.g., drug treatment for diseases of liver
616.362061
Therefore,
for example, works on the treatment of arthritis using acupressure are classed
in the number for arthritis (616.722
Arthritis) rather than in the number for acupressure (615.8222 Acupressure).
Numbers for diseases allow for addition of notation from the internal
add table under 616.1–616.9, where we find 06
Therapy and subdivisions, including 062-069
Other therapies, with an add instruction to add the numbers following 615.8
in 615.82–615.89. The specific number
for treatment of arthritis using
acupressure therefore is 616.72206222.
Another
large-scale implementation of the rule of application is found in 780 Music. This time the rule of application finds form,
not as an explicit statement in a class-elsewhere note, but as an implicit
effect of the class-with-the-last preference order that governs the 780s. As pointed out in the Manual note for 780 Music, the usual arrangement or
facet order in music is executant, form, general principles, and standard
subdivisions. We find executants in 782 Vocal music, 783 Music for single
voices, and 784–788 Instruments and
their music; it is useful for our purposes to note that these numbers are
not only for the voices and instruments that produce music, but also for the
music they produce. We find musical
forms that are executant-specific in the early numbers of their ranges (e.g., 782.1–782.4 Vocal forms, 784.18 [Instrumental] Musical forms)
and those that are not executant-specific in 781.8 Musical forms. We find
general principles that are executant-specific in the earliest numbers of their
ranges (e.g., 782.01–782.07 General
principles of vocal music, 784.11–784.17 General principles of instruments and
instrumental ensembles and their music) and those that are not
executant-specific in, e.g., 781.1 Basic
principles of music, 781.3
Composition, and 781.4 Techniques of
music. OK, so the
class-with-the-last preference order implements the facet order (that is,
executants come last, preceded by form, which in turn is preceded by general
principles; and, as always, standard subdivisions come last), but what does
this have to do with the rule of application?
It’s this: processes and
techniques that can be applied to music, e.g., composition, arrangement,
performance, conducting, recording, are included in the general principles grab
bag. Therefore—after the lengthy
prelude, do we now need a drum roll? (oops, inflicting punishment again)—processes and techniques applied to musical forms
or to music-by-kinds-of-executants are classed with the forms or
executants. For example, works on the composition
of fugues are classed in the number for fugues (784.1872 Fugues) rather than in the number for composition (781.3 Composition). Numbers for specific musical forms allow for
addition of notation from the internal add table under 781.2–781.8, where we
find 1 General principles and an
instruction to add the numbers following 781 in 781.1–781.7. The specific number for composition of fugues therefore is 784.187213.
Now we turn to several examples, all
involving computing, showing how the rule of application guides ongoing
development of the DDC. We note first
that works on the application of computers to a subject are classed in the
number for the subject followed by T1—0285
Computer applications, if appropriate.
Thus, when we relocated computational linguistics from 410.285 (Linguistics) Computer applications
to 006.35 Natural language processing,
it then became possible to express computational linguistics applications by
adding T1—0285635, following the add
instruction at T1—0285. Consistent with
the rule of application, works on the use of natural language processing /
computational linguistics to accomplish certain tasks are classed with the task,
plus notation T1—0285635. Hence we get automatic abstracting 025.410285635 (025.41 Abstracting), word sense disambiguation 401.430285635
(401.43 Semantics), automatic part-of-speech tagging and automatic parsing 415.0285635 (415 Grammar of standard forms of languages),
and machine translation 418.020285635
(418.02 Translating).
Questions on how to treat subjects
like wireless Internet, wireless LANs, and wireless
metropolitan networks were easily answered through the rule of
application: class in the number for the
kind of network. Therefore, wireless Internet is classed in 004.678, wireless LANs in 004.68,
and wireless metropolitan networks in
004.67.
With DDC 23 additional concepts were incorporated into existing
computer science classes. Two of these
were integrated development environments (IDEs) and application frameworks.
Webopedia describes an IDE as "a programming environment integrated into a
software application that provides a GUI builder, a text or code editor, a
compiler and/or interpreter and a debugger."
So we had to decide whether to
represent an IDE as a systems program (this is how interpreters, compilers, and
assemblers are treated) or as an aid in programming (this is how application
generators, text editors specially designed to assist in coding programs, and
debuggers are treated). Since the rule of
application sided with the latter, "integrated development environments" was
added to the class-here note at 005.1
Programming. The pcmag.com
encyclopedia characterizes an application framework as "a set of common
software routines that provides a foundation structure for developing an
application. Frameworks take the tedium out of writing all the program code for
an application from scratch." As with
integrated development environments, the purpose of application frameworks is
to support the development of programs. The
rule of application again leads to application frameworks being associated with
005.1 Programming, where "application
frameworks" was also added to the class-here note.
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