[sc34wg3] One standard or several?

[Steve Pepper]

N323 - sometimes erroneously called the "roadmap", in fact entitled
"Guide to the topic map standardization" discusses the various pieces
of the topic map family of standards and how they relate to each
other.

It also states that

   The parts of the new ISO 13250 standard will be:

   *  Part 0: A guide to the structure of the standard
   *  Part X: The Standard Application Model
   *  Part X: The Reference Model
   *  Part X: The XML Topic Maps syntax (XTM)
   *  Part X: The HyTime Topic Maps syntax (HyTM)
   *  Part X: Canonicalization of topic maps

TMQL and TMCL are envisioned to be separate standards.

In Baltimore a number of us were persuaded by Charles Goldfarb's
arguments to favour a number of small standards rather than a single
standard with multiple parts, not least because of the marketing value
of a standard that is perceived as short and easy to read.

This is the approach taken in N372.

Anyone wishing to present principled arguments for or against multiple
standards (as opposed to a multipart standard) is encouraged to do so
in this thread. If no objections are heard, I will assume that (for the
present) the consensus goes in this direction.

A separate thread will address the question of how to distribute the
content listed above in separate standards.

Steve

--
Steve Pepper, Chief Executive Officer <pepper@ontopia.net>
Convenor, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34/WG3  Editor, XTM (XML Topic Maps)
Ontopia AS, Waldemar Thranes gt. 98, N-0175 Oslo, Norway.
http://www.ontopia.net/ phone: +47-23233080 GSM: +47-90827246