RE: [xtm-wg] Pete J's alternative xmtdoc packaging proposal

[Sam Hunting <sam_hunting@yahoo.com>]

Maybe the xtm wrapper just isn't worth it...

S.

--- Kal Ahmed <kal@ontopia.net> wrote:
> Peter,
> 
> Your proposal *seriously* misrepresents my original proposal and I
> feel that
> it is necessary to clear up one or two points.
> 
> You state:
> "there is no way to determine successful re-mapping other than by
> hoping.
> For example, imagine that my topic map
> contains sets of ID values like these:
> - ...id="myid-NNNNNNN" where N is a numeral.
> - ...id="pre-myid-NNNNNNN"."
> 
> and go on to give an example of a processor that inserts 'pre-' in
> front of
> the first id and not the second.
> 
> Let me disabuse you of that notion.
> 
> If two ids are in the same topic map, the packaging process inserts
> 'pre-'
> in front of both id values...no name clash.
> If the ids are in different topic maps in the package, then the
> process
> inserts 'pre-' in front of the first and some other prefix (e.g.
> 'foo-') in
> front of the other. Your name clash will only happen if an empty
> string is
> selected as the prefix value. However, my proposal does contain one,
> far
> smaller, flaw which is that given ids  'cd' in one topic map and
> 'bcd' in
> another, if the first receives prefix 'ab' and the second 'a', we can
> generate a name clash. However, this is easily forstalled by
> requiring a
> separator '.' to appear between the prefix and the original value. So
> we
> would get ab.cd and a.bcd (note that a, b, c or d can be replaced by
> a '.'
> and the name clash will not occur - we have now limited the potential
> for
> clashing to the possibility that all ids are generated as a string of
> '.'
> characters).
> 
> On a related note, your packaging proposal requires that the
> packaging
> process be able to generate some unique, 'ugly' ID. ["When all the
> documents
> have been scanned ID clashes are determined and for any ID clashes
> one of
> the two IDs that clash is re-mapped to a completely new value."] How
> can you
> guaruntee that this new value will not clash ? Without holding all of
> the
> encountered IDs in the process-space, you can't. It implies a huge
> overhead
> for processing a usefully large topic map.
> 
> So, the rhetorical question : "If Ahmed's method checks all ID values
> first
> in order to avoid the above then why not just re-map the specific
> values
> that clash." is answered "Well, actually it doesn't need to do that.
> In
> fact, the whole purpose is that you *don't* have to do that."
> 
> You make some spurious point about the packaging process failing.
> This is
> completely bogus as software failure is a software problem, not a
> specification problem. It is just as likely that **any** process
> writing XML
> could fail and generate invalid XML.
> 
> As for the addition of syntax, see the latest version of the XTM dtd
> posted.
> Alot of problems are solved by additional syntax. The syntax that I
> am
> proposing is a minimal amount required to (IMHO efficiently) solve
> the
> stated problem of topicmap packaging.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Kal
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Peter Jones [mailto:peterj@wrox.com]
> > Sent: 06 November 2000 10:59
> > To: Sam Hunting (E-mail); Murray Altheim (E-mail);
> 'xtm-wg@egroups.com'
> > Subject: [xtm-wg] Pete J's alternative xmtdoc packaging proposal
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Following the news that I would not be coming to Dallas, Sam
> > asked me to put
> > together a more coherent statement of my proposal for xtmdoc
> packaging.
> >
> > Here it is. (The .zip contains a html page and a couple of jpegs.)
> >
> > (Murray, If you could put this on your magic doctypes site
> > without incurring
> > significant injury to yourself, that would be great. Thanks.)
> >
> >  <<PPJ_PackagingProposal_X.zip>>
> >
> > Enjoy!
> >
> > Peter
> >
> > Peter Jones
> > mailto:peterj@wrox.com
> > Wrox Press - Programmer to Programmer (TM)
> > http://www.wrox.com
> > http://www.wroxconferences.com
> > http://p2p.wrox.com
> >
> >
> >
> > To Post a message, send it to:   xtm-wg@eGroups.com
> >
> > To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to:
> xtm-wg-unsubscribe@eGroups.com
> >
> 
> 
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=====
<? "To imagine a language is to imagine a form of life."
    -- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations ?>

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