[xtm-wg] Re: Portal Markup Language and Topic Map Template

[tsao@gte.net]

--- In xtm-wg@egroups.com, "Scott Tsao" <scott.tsao@b...> wrote:
> 
> Since I have not heard any responses yet, I thought I might post 
the 
> same question in this XTM-WG forum as well.  Again, anyone care to 
> comment?  (BTW: I won't be offended if you tell me that I am asking 
a 
> stupid question :-)
> 
Assuming that my question is not that stupid, I will try to answer it 
by first quoting a recent posting by Eliot on XML-DEV (Re: 
Architectural Forms and XAF):

"Architectural forms solve a difficult problem that you won't normally
see until you've done a lot of work with XML. If you're just trying to
solve a narrow point problem it's difficult to see how AFs will be of
value. But, as Steve said, if you're trying to build a standards
framework that enables interchange within and across enterprises 
(e.g.,
financial, medical records, legal documents), then you must have
something like AFs to solve the problem [NOTE: I consider 
all "industry
standard DTDs" to be prove non-solutions to these problems, that is, 
ATA
2100, Docbook, Pinnacles, etc. The interchange problem cannot be 
solved
by creating monolithic document types.]
...
NOTE: I have no particular love of the current AF implementation
approach. It was the best we could do within the constraints of not
being able to change the SGML standard, so we had to make do with
attributes, we couldn't invent new declaration types, we couldn't 
change
content model syntax, etc. AFs work as is (obviously, as we've used 
them
to good advantage for years now), but the mechanism could be much
improved. It was (and is) my hope that XML Schema would do AFs better
than we can do them now for the very reason that XML Schema is not 
bound
by the same restrictions we were."

Since Topic Maps are based on Architectural Forms, I would think the 
same benefits mentioned above would also apply when comparing the 
current form of PML (a DTD) with a Topic Maps based solution.  Also, 
since AF is not necessary the best implementation approach, TM 
template may be a better solution.

I wonder what the TM experts (e.g., Michel & Steve) and AF experts 
(e.g., Eliot & Steven) think about this...

Thanks,

Scott



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