[xtm-wg] Integrating prose for model and markup in the spec

[Sam Hunting <sam_hunting@yahoo.com>]

[SRN]

> We should *try*, if we possibly can, to use circumlocutions that
> remain agnostic about implementation methodologies. ...
> We have to decide, now, on the kinds of words we're going to use in 
> order to establish, in XTM 1.0, the correspondences between the
> conceptual and syntactic models.

Amen.

> Given the space limitations we've imposed on ourselves, I don't think
> we can do more than establish correspondences at a very high level.
(I have left the words 'WAS Re: "the graph" WAS RE:  [xtm-wg]
Reification of topic map constructs' out of the subject line. 2 thread
changes is enough?

> But I would argue that we can't do less, either.

Ditto.
 
> I'm wondering whether paired diagrams would help to make the
> correspondences easier to convey, easier to understand, and less
> space-consuming.

If I recall the Dallas decisions correctly, Steve Pepper and Daniel
were on the hook for prose deliverables, Daniel on the conceptual side,
and Steve on the markup side. It seems reasonable to me for Daniel and
Steve together to present the appropriate circumlocutions.

This leads to the larger question, how is the model prose to be
integrated with the markup prose? This is a question I have dithered
about.

One way is to have a section for the model, and a section for the
markup. One difficulty there is the perception of a W3C-Schema-like
profusion of layers. (DTMH: "Let's skip to the markup!") Also, the
reader has to flip or click back and forth between the two contexts.

A second way is to explain the markup, then the concept (or vice versa
;-) integrated under the same headings. The difficulty here is that
similarities between the two levels may be interpreted as identity
(DTMH: "I thought XML Authority was for DTDs, not trees!") which is a
problem because the two levels are not isomorphic, any more than the
markup and the graph levels are isomorphic. (This is another version of
the same old problem where a "topic" in the graph "is" not the
"<topic>" in the markup.)

So, circumlocation, and a strategy for integratiing prose for model and
markup. Steve Pepper? Daniel?

S.








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     - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations -->

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