Re: [geolang-comment] First proposals for ISO 639 and 3166 available

[Steve Pepper <pepper@ontopia.net>]

At 19:07 18/08/02 +0200, Lars Marius Garshol wrote:
>I've now put together what I call version 1.0alpha1 proposals for the
>ISO 639 and 3166 published subject sets.
>...
>Feedback, corrections, opinions, etc etc etc very much wanted.
>
>These can be downloaded as a Zip file from
>   <URL: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/geolang/docs/geolang-1.0a1.zip >

Some comments:

First of all, I think those of you who were at the (non-)meeting in Montreal
did a good job and took all the correct (non-)decisions. The only 
(non-)decision
that needs tweaking in the (non-minutes) is the one stating that numeric codes
will be used, giving the impression that both 3166 and 639 *have* numeric 
codes.
In fact of course, only 3166 does.

Since the use of rows in tables as subject indicators was raised, I want to
state explicitly that I am perfectly happy with this (non-)decision. Take a
look at iso-3166\index.html or iso-639\index.html: I think they work just fine.
Humans understand tables like this, so I don't see the objection.

Comments on the proposed deliverables themselves:

* Typing topics should be included (especially in the *-meta.xtm topic maps)
   for classes such as PSISET, VERSION, PUBLICATION-DATE, etc.
   Of course, this is the domain of the PubSubj TC, but they need the input
   and this committee needs something more complete for evaluation purposes.
   Suggest creating a strawman pubsubj-basic.xtm that can be merged into our
   XTMs.

* More importantly, the *-basic topic maps should capture as much as possible
   of the 3166 and 639. Specifically: 3166-basic.xtm should have either scoped
   names or typed occurrences for 2- and 3-letter codes (and probably also
   numeric codes, even though they are to be found via the subject indicator)

* Since we are defining a published subject for "language" and "country",
   I think we should also have explicit typing within 3166-basic and 639-basic.

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