[sc34wg3] Questions on N0396: (10) "merging as they see fit"

[Jan Algermissen]

In section 4 N0396 says:


"Merging is a process applied to topic maps in order to reduce
 the number of redundant information items representing the same
 information. Merging is required to be performed in certain cases,
 but this is insufficient to guarantee that there will always be one
 topic per subject. Applications are therefore allowed to merge topics
 as they see fit."


Does that mean that domains that have semantics beyond the SAM and
need to do merging based on semantics beyond the SAM can define
merging rules that are (neccessarily) beyond those of the SAM?

In other words: does it mean that a topic map author that 'invents'
new association types (e.g. father-son) is free to define merging
rules based on them?

In yet other words: Are implementations free to provide/perform merging
based on arbitrary association types?


Last one: Does it mean that the SAM is extendable not only by
association types but also by merging rules based on them?

Jan


 
-- 
Jan Algermissen                           http://www.topicmapping.com
Consultant & Programmer	                  http://www.gooseworks.org