[tmql-wg] TMQL Use Cases: Remaining Issues

[Robert Barta]

Hi all,

I had a look at my left-over notes for the outstanding issues for the
TMQL use cases document. Some of these I have collected without
understanding their merit, so I am simply listing them here.

Some issues would involve that new use cases have to be added or -
more drastically - some of the data will have to be changed. As I do
not want to make such changes unilaterally I will post suggestions
here and only if there are no major objections, will add them to the
document.

I will certainly not add anything before Amsterdam.

\rho

==================

- Ad data:

  From Lars:

  > The subclass association does not use the right PSIs, so this
  > means that query engines can't actually know that this is the
  > magic superclass-subclass association type.

  Correct.

  Currently, we have in the text:

  "It is assumed that subclasses represents
  http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/core.xtm#superclass-subclass,
  superclass represents
  http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/core.xtm#superclass and subclass
  represents http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/core.xtm#subclass.

  This association type should have the implicit property that if a is
  an instance of A and A is a subclass of B then a is also an instance
  of B. The binary relation subclasses is to be interpreted
  non-reflexive and transitive."

  ? Should we change the data to reflect this statement ?

- Ad data:

  From Lars:

  > uc-literature.xtm is not valid XTM, since <subjectIdentity>
  > appears at the end; it has to go between <instanceOf> and
  > <baseName>. (Found this in the new validating Omnigator.)

  This is now fixed in the CVS version.

- Ad data:

  From Lars:

  > The sort names are not actually sort names:
  >  1) they are not variant names, and
  >  2) they do not use the correct PSIs (or any PSIs at all).
  > 
  > It's still possible to sort on them, but they should be actual
  > sort names.

  I wonder, why they should, so what difference it makes.

  In the prolog for the use case data we have currently:

  "the basename value in the scope <code>sort</code> we call the
   <emph>sort name</emph>"


  ? Any good reason to change this?

- Ad query 5.2.2.6: 

  From Lars:
  > The sample data does not have any subclass of tutorial with
  > instances, so the "direct or indirect" part does not have any
  > effect.  I guess we should either take it out of the use case or
  > add data to the topic map.

  True. We have 5.2.2.8, though, which asks for this.
  
- Ad query 5.2.2.20:

  From Lars:
  >  "publications" should here probably be "documents", since that's
  >  the topic type.

  Not quite. Currently, the accompanying text says:

    "Conversely, a publication is a document which has been authored
    by someone."

  So there must be an authorship relation to make it a publication.
  (Should actually be expressed in TMCL :-)

- Ad query 5.3.1: 

  From Lars:
  > The results shown include non-papers TAO and colourful.

  True. Fixed in CVS.

- New Use Case

  Should we have a use case covering more complex associations with
  several roles? All associations currently are binary.

  If so, then the data has to be changed. Idea:

  (paper-is-presented-at)
  conference: xml200x
  paper: some-paper
  presenter: someone

  Use case:

  "Return all titles of documents which have been presented at the xml200x
   conference."

- New Use Case

  Do we want one for "types for basenames"?

  Idea:

  ?????

- Use Case for reification of topics

  Actually 5.2.2.16 should be read like this:

  "Which topics reify something on that site"

  I see that all solutions have interpreted it like this.

- Use Case for reification of associations

  Change in the data:

  (paper-is-presented-at) is-reified-by x123
  conference: ....
  paper: ....
  presenter: ...

  x123
  bn: ...
  in (entertainment-level): 5

  Use case:

  "return all papers which were presented with an entertainment
   level 5 (and above)"


- Use Case for reification of characteristics (yuck)

  Change of data:

  x123
  in (entertainment-level) is-reified-by x234 : 5

  (is-assessed-by)
  assessor: xml200x-audience
  assessment: x234

  Use case:

  "return all presentations (paper and presenter) which
   have been assessed by the XML200x conference audience" 

- Use Case for source locators

  ????

- Use Case for Full Text Retrieval

  Do we need more sophistication than what we have in 5.2.2.13?

  Soundex, ranking :-)

===

- There references were missing. I have regenerated them and committed
  a new version into the CVS. Maybe the Makefile does not work when being
  executed by Lars?

- In the visible version at

  http://www.isotopicmaps.org/tmql/use-cases.html

  most links do not work (documents not copied). Also the small image
  at the beginning does not show up. It does in the CVS version.

- Do we need a "Conformance Test Suite"? It would formalize the use cases
  and combine them with the expected outcome (CXTM?)

  I think this should be done as soon as we have a bit more machine support.
  Maintaining the use cases manually is VERY error prone.

- Shall we add here cases to outline that processors are allowed to
  do 'lazy evaluation'? This is also something which might have to
  be reflected in the TMQL requirements document.