[sc34wg3] Question on TNC / Montreal minutes

[Jan Algermissen]

Marc de Graauw wrote:

> Also: is this Topic Map (going to be) valid?
> 
> <topicMap>
> 
>   <topic id="t1">
>     <baseName>
>       <baseNameString merge="on">Mama Cass</baseNameString>
>     </baseName>
>   </topic>
> 
>   <topic id="t6">
>     <baseName>
>       <baseNameString merge="off">Mama Cass</baseNameString>
>     </baseName>
>   </topic>
> 
> </topicMap>

How interesting...this raises the question if the
'causeTNCbasedMerge'-flag is a property of a) the basename or b) the
particular association between the topic and its base name.

If it is a) then the above topic map would not be valid I think, because
a basename would either be triggering a merge or not. This also seems to
demand that the value of the merge attribute has to be the same for
all basenames that are equal. But then, isn't it the topic map processor
that eventually decides how it interpretes 'equal' ? This would then
lead to a situation where a map might be valid in the context of the
author (suppose the author thinks of 'char-by-char' equality) but might
be invalid for some topic map engines (that propably apply a case insensitive
interpretation of 'equal')....???


If it is b) then the merge attribute should be on the <baseName> element
and would mean: "whatever other pieces of the map say, don't merge this
topic with other topics that happen to have the same name (in the same scope).


 Jan


> Thanks for clarifying,


> 
> Marc
> 
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-- 
Jan Algermissen
Consultant & Programmer

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