[sc34wg3] Questions on N0396: (2) one or more association memberships

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Jan Algermissen
|
| In section 3.8 it says:
| 
| "An association is a relationship between one or more subjects."
| 
| This implies that there can be a "relationhip between one subject".
| Could you clarify what that is allowed and what meaning an
| association with only one membership is supposed to convey?

This is a carry-over from HyTM and XTM, both of which allow unary
associations. The rationale, I've been told, was that unary
associations are essentially assertions about a single subject, such
as:

  is-inquisitive(jan : person)

SAM has to have this because HyTM and XTM have it.

| I suggest to constrain the cardinality of the [roles] property of an
| association item to be two or more.

No can do, since that would break backwards compatibility. 

I'm pretty sure I've seen people use this in actual topic maps, though
I forget where.
 
| If the [role playing topic] property of the association role item
| would be optional, role players could missing while ensuring that
| associations have at least two association roles.

You can still leave it out in the syntax, but we don't really
recommend that. 

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