[sc34wg3] [role playing topic] property value (WAS: Re: SAM: Topic Identity)

[sc34wg3@isotopicmaps.org]

Lars Marius Garshol writes:

<snip/>
> 
> * kal@techquila.com
> |
> | Rereading the SAM with CXTM glasses, I notice that the Topic
> | information item does not require any form of identity. Each of the
> | properties [source locators], [subject indicators] and [subject
> | addresses] may be empty as can the [names] property.

<snip/>

> | Hence one can always infer at least one value for the union of [source
> | locators] [subject inidcators] and [subject addresses] properties.
> | 
> | Shouldn't the SAM reflect this ?
> 
> I'm tempted to say that we should change it to add this constraint.
> The only place this would conflict with is the processing of <member/>
> elements in XTM, where we said that if no member was specified one
> should be generated automatically. However, we can just require that
> it have a random and unique source locator assigned.
> 

I don't understand why the [role player] property cannot be null (like the
[reifier] property) in this case. Assigning random identity to topics
smells like a hack and is going to make canonicalisation more than a little
difficult (how does one determine a canonical order for topics with random
identity ?), so I would be strongly against that.

Cheers,

Kal