Definition: bert	last revised by 127.0.0.1 on Aug 17, 2005 4:05 am

Similar to a file handle, it is named after the great mathematician Bertrand Russell, who spent his life trying to introduce consistency into mathematics. A bert of a particular edition of a work is obtained, in either a read or write mode before operating upon a document, and released thereafter.

"Berts are the soul of a document and represent the discrete, persisting identity behind the changing representations of that identity. As changes are made, a document visits different states (represented by new Stamps), and whenever a particular state is blessed with a Bert hopped from a predecessor Stamp we refer to the result as a new "edition" of the original document.

When a document is replicated a new Bert is created representing a new and separate identity; we refer to this as a "variation" on the original document, anticipating a distinct intent by providing a distinct identity and state/edition history capability (note that the term "variation" is somewhat presumptuous, but not overly so since it fits our reasonable expectation of actual changes representing a new intent). "

References:

• Version Aversion