RE: [xtm-wg] Re: [ANN:] TM4J 0.1 - A TopicMap Processor in Java

[Kal Ahmed <kal_ahmed@chrystal.co.uk>]

>From Scott Tsao:
> 
> Kal Ahmed wrote:
> 
> > I want to build some more command-line tools. I was thinking of:
> > 	A 'stats' command (count topics, assocs etc)
> > 	A scope 'filter' 
> > 	Some visualisation tools
> > 
> > Any other suggestions ?
> > 
> > 
> I would like to share a dialog I had with Peter Murray-Rust 
> on this subject (based on his postings on xml-dev) as follows:
> 
> > ----------
> > From: 	Peter Murray-Rust[SMTP:peter@ursus.demon.co.uk]
[snip]
> Here is my wish
> > list:
> > >- convert DTD/Schema and the attendant XML files to topic maps

This is an interesting avenue to explore. Especially trying to do this
conversion in a generic (i.e. non-schema/DTD dependant) manner - perhaps
some form of chained XSL process a la schematron which can take a
'definition' file for a specific schema which says what data you want to
convert to topics and how to make associations and then produce an XSL file
to actually convert any instance of that schema into a topic map. Of course,
there is always extra information to be gleaned from data that is not marked
up, there are domain-specific semantics, opportunities for textual analysis
and so on, but working with the markup that exists might be a good place to
start.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar thoughts.

> > >- create topic maps from scratch
> > >- modify (add/update/delete) topics/occurrences/associations

Do you mean graphically ? Watch this space... :-)

> > >- merge topic maps

The TM4J package has a command-line app which will merge 2 or more topic
maps. The engine is capable of merging an arbitrary number of topic maps and
treating them as a single map for the purposes of any processing.

> > >- navigate topic maps textually and graphically

It seems that this is an area of widespread interest and focus at the
moment. It is early days yet for visualisations. 

> > >- search topics/occurrences/associations

Definitely! TM4J is somewhat restricted in the indexing it performs - It
really needs to be integrated with some additional indexing processes (e.g.
text indexing), which are probably not in the scope of a Topic Map engine.

> > 
> > I'm probably not the best person to ask...
> > 
> > My main concern is that the people promoting topics 
> actually get some
> > software out there and being used. Ideas won't sell 
> themselves - they need
> > software developed that is easy, widespread and useful. 
> This is the problem
> > with RDF - few people use it. 

I agree - this is the period in which those tools need to start becoming
available. As IDEAlliance push the XTM work in a marketing sense, there
needs to be a few tools available for interested people to make and work
with TMs - in my mind, that adds to the urgency for the XTM-WG to get an XML
version of the interchange format published...

> > >
> > >In addition, I am looking for standard API development for TM and,

Probably the second most important thing that the XTM-WG can do!

> > hopefully, by leveraging the current development of 
> XML-based API (e.g.,
> > XML Query).  I suspect that a potential "killer 
> application" for TM could
> > be the "portals" because a TM-enabled portal would provide the most
> > flexibility for the user community.

Yes, and I think that this encompasses "portals" in the very broadest sense.
In fact almost any aggregation of published data could benefit from an
out-of-line index.

> > 
> > Someone has to go out and build it - and also find a 
> compelling set of
> > content to illustrate it with!
> > 

Lets get started ! :-)

Cheers,

Kal


--------------------------------------
Kal Ahmed
Solutions Architect
Chrystal Software
kal_ahmed@chrystal.co.uk
www.chrystal.com
--------------------------------------

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