[sc34wg3] implementer's comments on XTM, 23.2.2003, Rev1.15

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Robert Barta
| 
| Yes, this is more a general rant and can be easily ignored. I was
| simply wondering that the IDs - actually an XMLish way to address a
| particular part of an XML __DOCUMENT__ is "used" (read abused) to
| address now a topic or particular parts of topics.

Well, that's just a consequence of the topic map being created from an
XML document. Abstractly, what the SAM does is allow you to address
any topic map construct by a URI. The form of the URIs will depend on
how the topic map was created.

| And, if we already have this, why does it only work for particular
| things and not for others?

What things does it not work for?
 
| Again, can be ignored since this cannot be changed easily without
| affected probably a lot of other stuff.

Well, even so I'd like to discuss it.
 
* Lars Marius Garshol
|
| Not sure I follow here. You mean you would prefer if only topicRef
| were used to refer to topics? I made that comment myself just before
| XTM was published, but it was too late then, and it's definitely too
| late now. :)
| 
| :-) Maybe it is just my programmer's soul, but here I would have
| designed my TM data structures to be all about topics, regardless
| where they come from:
| 
|  - In case of topicRef this would simply be a pointer to the topic
|  which is already declared in the map.
| 
|  - In case of resourceRef a topic representing this resource would be
|  created (just as the SAM says),
| 
|  - similar for subject....

This is how the SAM is.
 
| This distinction would not appear then in XTM (or any other
| serialisation).

I agree, and have said so many times, but this is something we can't
change without breaking too many documents. And, actually, XTM
Fragments makes good use of this.
 
| Please correct me if this would not work. Maybe it is not completely
| practical but I would have preferred a rather orthogonal format. Now
| SAM has to compensate for this. Which is ok, per-se.

How does SAM compensate? That's what I don't understand.

-- 
Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopian         <URL: http://www.ontopia.net >
GSM: +47 98 21 55 50                  <URL: http://www.garshol.priv.no >