[sc34wg3] Part 4: Canonicalization

[Martin Bryan]

The following comments are made with respect to the 2003-10-22 version of
Part 4:

Introduction.
Delete first sentence in last paragraph as it repeats information in
penultimate paragraph.

4.1
In second para change "set to the element" by "a reference to the element"

4.2
In first numbered item remove "only"
Somewhere before items 3 and 4 you need to explain what "The empty set" is
as there is no logical reason for having any property that cannot contain
any value.
Somewhere before items 5, 6 and 7 you need to explain why properties that
can never contain a value are required.
NB. It is not intuitive that these properties are used for consitency, or
whether or not there are circumstances in which they can be updated. This
must be made explicit to readers and not left for them to understand after
making a detailed study of the spec.

4.5
The meaning of "a representation" in items 2 and 3 needs to be defined.
(What if I decide to create a painting of them?)

4.9
In 2.1.3.4 what format does "The element information item" take: the XML
representation in the topic map of the information item?

4.11
In item 2 what form should the "string representation of the position of the
topic information item" take? Why should an application not be able to
represent this information by an IDREF to an ID assigned to the information?

4.13
In item 2.3.2 what form should the "string representation of the position of
the topic information item" take? Why should an application not be able to
represent this information by an IDREF to an ID assigned to the information?

Martin Bryan
IS-Thought: Thinkers for the Information Society
29 Oldbury Orchard, Churchdown, Glos. GL3 2PU, UK
Phone: +44 1452 714029 Fax: +44 1452 859991
E-mail: martin@is-thought.co.uk