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<DIV>> While we're dreaming, I think it would be doable to have a "Paint Your Own</DIV>
<DIV>> Device" program, where you pick a field, then (optionally) a division or</DIV>
<DIV>> border, paste some charges on and color them, etc. You could disable</DIV>
<DIV>> illegal color combinations, e.g., your field is red, so green is not an</DIV>
<DIV>> option for your sheep. As you go, the matching blazon grows in a sidebar.</DIV>
<DIV>> Then-- and here's the big payoff-- the program makes an Internet query</DIV>
<DIV>> against the big O&A database in the sky. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There's _way_ too much ambiguity in blazon for that to work well.</DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV>An old joke illustrates the ambiguity of English by telling of a</DIV>
<DIV>computer program that translates English into Russian and</DIV>
<DIV>back; when someone inputs "Out of sight, out of mind",</DIV>
<DIV>the machine spits out "Invisible madman". (Come to think</DIV>
<DIV>of it, did some Vincent Price movie have that title?).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Can you heralds in the house cook up some valid blazons</DIV>
<DIV>that a hypothetical (or actual, if you have one) blazon program</DIV>
<DIV>would misunderstand?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>-- Alfredus Scurra</DIV>
<DIV>Per pale azure and argent, a jester's belled</DIV>
<DIV>hood of two ears affronty counterchanged </DIV>
<DIV>--- <A href="mailto:guojia@earthlink.net">guojia@earthlink.net</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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