[sc34wg3] RM: Mandatory role types?

[Sam Hunting]

<snip>
[Steve Pepper] 
> > Not meaningless, just incomplete. Why shouldn't it be
> > possible to express incomplete assertions in topic
> > maps? For example:
> 
> > (1) "A and B are related, but I don't know how" (no
> >     association type or role types; role players
> >     known)

[steve newcomb]
> The RM4TM idiom does not prevent you from saying this,
> but it does require you to handle this situation by
> defining an "unknown relationship" assertion type, with
> role types "unknown role type 1" and "unknown role type

I don't think this makes the prettiest graph, but so far as I know,
prettiness is not a design guidline ;-)

What this discussion does bring out is, again, the idea that the graph is
a lot like an assembly language -- one wouldn't want to "model" in it --
do modelling in a higher level language more suited to that purpose.

> 
> > Why should the RM, the SAM or the syntax prevent us
> > from expressing these kinds of incomplete knowledge?
> 
> It *doesn't* prohibit you from saying anything you want
> to say, but it *does* make you say what you mean.  That
> seems a reasonable price to pay for information
> interchange.

Amen.


> -- Steve
> 
> Steven R. Newcomb, Consultant
> srn@coolheads.com
> 
> Coolheads Consulting
> http://www.coolheads.com
> 
> voice: +1 972 359 8160
> fax:   +1 972 359 0270
> 
> 1527 Northaven Drive
> Allen, Texas 75002-1648 USA
> 
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> 

Sam Hunting
eTopicality, Inc.

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