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Categories

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

An attempt to gradually categorize at least some of the entries herein, although I fully realize that any categorization scheme is ultimately arbitrary and conjectural. This was perhaps best illustrated in the essay by Jorge Luis Borges entitled ``The Analytical Language of John Wilkins.'' Wilkins was an archetypal well-educated and interested Englishman of the 1600s who, among other things, who came up with a scheme in which he divided the universe into forty categories. After describing the scheme and noting its deficiencies, Borges notes a precursor system in a Chinese encyclopedia entitled ``Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge,'' in which animals are divided into (a) those that belong to the Emporer, (b) embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in this classification, (i) those that tremble as if they were mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camel's hair brush, (l) others, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, and (n) those that resemble flies from a distance. While my software categorization scheme (or perhaps scheme-like contrivance) will probably be neither as arbitrary or (unfortunately) interesting as this, it should provide at least some rough idea as to what's here.

Databases
Software to help us store, manage and retrieve things.
Graphics
Stuff that makes or modifies pictures and images.
Mathematics and Numerics
Programs that solve problems analytically and/or numerically.
Parallel Processing
Software that enables one to use more than one processor and/or memory bank to run programs.
Programming
Languages with which we write programs for computers to run and related software.
Science
Software related to various scientific pursuits.
Software Repositories
These sites contains from several to hundreds of packages that are usually thematically related.
Sound
Software that helps us hear things both ugly and beautiful.
System Administration
Software for keeping things slightly less than completely chaotic.
Text Processing
Software that transmogrifies textual stuff in one way or another.
Web
Software for creating, investigating, and measuring the Web.


Borges

LOC

Dewey Decimal

AMS MSC

AIP PACS

ETI taxonomy

NetPets


next up previous contents
Next: Contents Up: Linux Software Encyclopedia Previous: Software Metasites
Steven K. Baum
7/16/1998