AW: [tmql-wg] overview query languages

Stefan Henke stefanhenke@gmx.de
Mon, 26 Apr 2004 19:37:41 +0200


Hi Robert, hi Steve,
thanks for your helpfull answers.
First, let?s explain in short what I?m trying to do using topic maps in my
thesis. The goal is to provide a framework/interface to access topic maps
that are distributed in a network in a transparent manner. In other words:
applications should be able to access topic maps in a network as it is one
big one. This could be called "topic grid".
For my (current) opinion, the usage of a query language is very helpfully in
this context. Moreover, I think it is also a good "evaluation" of the
benefits of such a query language. What do you think?
Unfortunately, tm4j only supports version 0.1 of tolog. Version 1.0 is quite
powerfull and would satisfy (hopefully) my requirements for a query
language. I had a short look at Zope Topic Maps but couldn?t find any
information if it has any support for a query language. Does anyone of you
know?

Regards,
Stefan

-----Ursprungliche Nachricht-----
Von: Robert Barta [mailto:rho@bigpond.net.au]Im Auftrag von Robert Barta
Gesendet: Samstag, 24. April 2004 12:58
An: Stefan Henke
Cc: tmql-wg@isotopicmaps.org
Betreff: Re: [tmql-wg] overview query languages


On Thu, Apr 22, 2004 at 06:52:23PM +0200, Stefan Henke wrote:
> - as querying topic maps is a main part of the topic grid, I want to give
an
> overwiew of currently available query lanuages. What do you think about
the
> most important languages: tolog, astma, empolis, toma, tmpath? Except for
> tolog, I couldn?t find implementations of the languages which are
available
> either freely or as open source. Did I miss something or is this right?

Stefan,

You most probably know

  http://www.isotopicmaps.org/tmql/

which should hold the authoritative source for all publicly known
efforts (I am sure there are non-public efforts).

Speaking for AsTMa?, it is mostly implemented as proof-of-concept and
there is also a demo at

  http://astma.it.bond.edu.au/query/

The source code is not yet available, because the whole Perl package
containing it is under complete overhaul (read it is in a mess :-).
Once this is cleaned up it will be checked into sourceforge and moves onto
CPAN.

> Sorry, partly the questions don?t directly refer to TMQL, but I think this
> is the best "meeting place" for all the guys that are touch with query
> languages for topic maps.

Most definitely. Stay here, we take all the help we can get.

Steve answered the other questions.

\rho