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The amazing journey of unique identifiers: Did you know that every item has its own secret code?
In our daily lives, every object, every person, and even every concept has a specific identifier. These identifiers are not just labels, but also have stories and meanings behind them.
An identifier, simply put, is a name or label given to a unique object or class of objects. These identifiers can be words, numbers, symbols, etc., or even a combination of them. For example, the ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registration standard defines a code that is a valid symbology for replacing longer values.
"In some cases, identifiers can be called codes even if they are actually arbitrary, sometimes simply because the speaker believes they have a deeper meaning."
In the world of metadata, an identifier is a language-independent label that uniquely identifies an object. This involves the processing and management of information, and many items around us also rely on such systems. For example, if you know that the identifier of a food package is "2011-09-25T15:42Z-MFR5-P02-243-45", then you not only know the package, but also its packaging date, manufacturer and serial number number and other details.
“Any identifier may lack metadata. For example, if a food package is only labeled 100054678214, its ID may not tell you anything.”
In computer science, identifiers play a crucial role, they are lexical symbols for named entities. Whether they are variables, types, subroutines, or packages, identifiers are everywhere and help us reference them during symbol processing.
We will also find that resources often carry multiple identifiers. For example, a person may have multiple names and titles, which may affect the identification of that person in various social situations. In addition, documents may have different versions, and each version may have its own unique identifier.
"When multiple identifiers conflict, a naming collision problem occurs."
In communication across cultures and national boundaries, old naming rules are likely to encounter new challenges, which makes the original identifier categories blurred and confusing. The development of the Internet has especially amplified this problem, as more people and objects are connected and interact with each other, and the corresponding identifiers become increasingly difficult to manage.
However, this also triggered people to think deeply about the meaning of identifiers. When the meaning and context of use of identifiers change, how should we deal with these changes? In such an environment, applying a reasonable management and classification system has become an important task.
In an ideal world, each item would have a unique UID, so there would be no need for overlapping namespaces. However, in reality, human cognition cannot easily handle such a large amount of UID data. This makes us have to think about how we will continue to improve and optimize the identifier system for better information management in the current rapid development of technology. .
The diversity and importance of identifiers are undoubtedly an integral part of the functioning of today's society. Different disciplines and different fields are using their own identifiers to label and identify. However, in this process, are there more stories hidden behind them that are worth discovering?
