[xtm-wg] XTM Conformance and Error Handling

[Murray Altheim <murray.altheim@eng.sun.com>]

[Was: Re: [xtm-wg] Syntax is a bitch :-( ]

Michel Biezunski wrote:
> 
> [Eliot Kimber:]
> 
>  For example, with XPath, it's almsot as easy to
> > address by unique topic name as it is to address by ID value.
> 
> Except that this solution will not work if there is the slightest change
> in your topic map document. Therefore this is only  advisable if the topic
> map
> is never going to change.
> 
> (The ID strategy does not completely protect from the same problem, but it's
> slightly sounder.)

This reminds me of the Netscape error strategy. Had Netscape (or Mosaic
prior to it) flagged errors in HTML documents the Web might have become a
cleaner place, albeit more difficult for authors. If topic maps are
edited with validating editors, or XTM processors typically validate
on the fly, then conflicting IDs immediately become apparent. But if 
topic maps prove as messy as typical HTML documents (and I have no doubt
they will be, sadly) then there will be broken topic maps. Our protection
against this to some extent is validation enforcement and a strict DTD, 
but as I've heard too many time to not have nightmares about it, "market
forces" may prevail upon us to allow for proprietary extensions via 
namespaces, and lax validation in the DTD. The XTM 'loose' DTD.

What all this says to me is that we should be very clear about conformance
and error handling behaviour in conformant XTM processors. And not too lax.

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim, SGML/XML Grease Monkey     <mailto:altheim&#64;eng.sun.com>
XML Technology Center
Sun Microsystems, 1601 Willow Rd., MS UMPK17-102, Menlo Park, CA 94025

      In the evening
      The rice leaves in the garden
      Rustle in the autumn wind
      That blows through my reed hut.  -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu

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