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``A representation is a formal system
for making explicit certain entities or types of information, together
with a specification of how the system does this. And I shall call
the result of using a representation to describe a given entity a
description of the entity in that representation...''
``...This definition of a representation is quite general.
For example, a representation for shape would be a formal scheme for
describing some aspects of shape, together with rules that specify
how the scheme is applied to any particular shape. A musical score
provides a way of representing a symphony; the alphabet allows the
construction of a written representation of words; and so forth. The
phrase ``formal scheme'' is critical to the definition, but the
reader should not be frightened by it. The reason is simply that we
are dealing with the information-processing machines, and the way
such machines work is by using symbols so stand for things-to represent
things, in our terminology. To say that something is a formal scheme
means only that it is a set of symbols with rules for putting them
together - no more and no less...''