RE: [xtm-wg] XTM-ISS Important XLink difference in DTDs

["Dale Hunscher" <dale@supportability.com>]

<snip />

<steve>
Graham, I wonder whether you're proposing to add a new feature that I
would call "explicit thumbnails of traversal targets".  If so, it's a
helluva good feature, but I don't understand why you call it
"nameservice".  I don't know why you would make namespaces out of
thumbnails.  I can certainly see why you might display them as pick
lists, though.  Come to think of it, thumbnails often won't be name
strings, anyway; they'll often be graphics, or greeked text layouts.
</steve>

I think (I hope) that what Graham was proposing goes beyond just providing
thumbnails. I was thinking more of allowing the MIME type of the occurrence
targets to be provided. That would have much broader use potential for many
purposes.

<snip />

<steve>
Please do not be offended when I remind you that the requirements for
the syntax are not the same as the requirements for the underlying
model.  It will be very helpful if you will explain (without resorting
to any argument based on the specious principle that the structure of
the syntax should reflect the structure of the underlying model) how
the interchange of topic map information will be negatively impacted
by this "hack", as you call it.  (Note that I did not say, "processing
of topic map information"; I said, "interchange of topic map
information".)
</steve>

I would like to second Graham's concern, or raise one of my own if I am not
echoing his concern correctly. There is a feeling when reading all the
material on topic Maps that it is a great benefit that everything is a
topic, and on one level that is true. On another level, though, if
everything is a topic, but there are many different flavors of topics,
processing of topics will rightfully ignore their topic-ness and focus on
their flavors. Sometimes it is better to have different entities for
different purposes, even though they may *also* have some part of their
nature in common.

The looseness of the current approach may work well for corpora like
encyclopedias where the material is fairly loosely structured and no
significant liability issues are involved; however, for the kinds of
repositories my clients deal with (e.g., pharmaceutical and legal
information) precise specification of content and data type is important. I
have not spoken up much so far on these issues because I wanted to see what
use cases turned up; I suspect these concerns could apply in many of the
areas listed in Ann's document as well.

I do applaud the efforts I've seen here, don't get me wrong. One standard
can't be everything to everybody; if Topic Maps in their current form are
serving a lot of people's needs, that's a good thing. If we don't find what
we need here, we'll find it elsewhere, or build it ourselves. OTOH, if this
post rings a bell for others, perhaps some momentum for change will build
up. I personally wish I had more time to devote to this effort, but
unfortunately that luxury is not currently mine to enjoy.

==================================
Dale Hunscher, CEO and Principal Consultant
South Wind Design, Inc. - http://www.swdi.com
A Connectex Consulting Partner - http://www.connectex.com
Publishing Systems and Document Management Solutions
1 (734) 821-0036 voice
1 (734) 821-0037 fax
1 (734) 678-5178 cel
============================
Come hear my talks at
XML DevCon 2000 Fall in San Jose-
http://www.xmldevcon2000.com/session.cfm?page=w21
XML 2000 in Washington DC-
http://www.gca.org/attend/2000_conferences/XML_2000/schedule.htm#wednesday
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