Re: [xtm-wg] Reification of topic map constructs

["Steven R. Newcomb" <srn@coolheads.com>]

[Steve Newcomb:]
> > Note 1: "Reification" herein means "The creation of a topic node in a
> >         topic map graph...
> 
> What does the term "topic map graph" mean?

[Sam Hunting:]
> The best definition I have been able to find is "the set of
> interconnected topic nodes, etc., that result from processing a topic
> map document."

I hope and believe that the Conceptual Modeling Subgroup is going to
tell us the answer to that question, in gruesome detail.

> (1) The term "node" is a little overloaded right now.
> 
> One thinks of DOM nodes, even nodes in dynamic HTML, and therefore one
> thinks, wrongly, that standard XML tools are sufficient to process
> topic maps. (They are necessary, but not sufficient.)
> 
> Part of my confusion is that I am used to believing that the topic map
> graph is isomorphic with the <topicMap> markup. But this is not so,
> given that the creation of topic nodes in the topic graph can be
> "demanded by" the presence of elements in the <topicMap? document that
> are not <topic>s.
> 
> Perhaps, in the context of TM documentation, "pnode" (for "processed
> node")?

"Node" is always overloaded.  Take any Computer Science course on data
structures, and you'll find that out very quickly.  I once got so
confused that I had to ask a CS person what the hell a node is.  The
answer?  "Oh, anything you like."  

(You get a similar answer when you ask a music theorist, "What's a
musical event?".  Actually, the answer to that one is, "Well, it's
either some kind of sound, or it's not, that happens at a particular
time, or it doesn't, that has a particular duration, or it doesn't.")

Needless to say, the "Anything you like" answer didn't help me much at
the time.  Anyway, in the context of graph-type data structures,
including but not limited to hierarchies (topic map groves can contain
hierarchies but they are not hierarchies) the word "node" always means
something like, "The terminus of one or more arcs".  Which begs the
question, "What's an arc?"  To which you get the circular, unhelpful
answer, "It's the connection between two nodes."  My understanding is
that "node" is just vanilla CS jargon, Sam.

I personally don't want to create a new jargon term for this.  A node
is a node, whether it's in a DOM tree or a topic map graph.  If the
DOM is the only kind of graph a given person has ever encountered,
then that person just needs to understand that DOM trees are not the
only kinds of graphs in the world.

> (2) Are all the pnodes in a topic map graph of type "topic"?

Good question.  Let's see what the CMS people have to say about that
on Friday.

> (3) Are the interconnections between pnodes typed?

Good question.  Let's see what the CMS people have to say about that
on Friday.  (On this one, I hope the answer is "Yes".)

-Steve

--
Steven R. Newcomb, Consultant
srn@coolheads.com

voice: +1 972 359 8160
fax:   +1 972 359 0270

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