[xtm-wg] syntax issues: variant name and base name

["Nikita Ogievetsky" <nogievet@cogx.com>]

Hi everybody,

(Sorry for an off-tag message :-)

After spending quite some hours writing stylesheets for
Topic Maps to XTM syntax I (as XTM user and hacker :-)
came up with the following suggestions:
(I will be writing them one bt one)

1) variant and variantName
----------------------------
  <!ELEMENT variant  ( parameters?, ( variantName | variant )+ ) >
  <!ATTLIST variant
     id              ID                  #IMPLIED
  >
  <!ELEMENT variantName  ( resourceRef | resourceData )+ >
---------------------------
I suggest to simplify <variant> by making <resourceData> and <resourceRef>
its direct children
(thus removing <variantName> element from the DTD)

In other words change above DTD declaration to:

---------------------------
  <!ELEMENT variant
    ( parameters?, ( resourceRef | resourceData |variant )+ )
  >
  <!ATTLIST variant
     id              ID                  #IMPLIED
  >
---------------------------

For example, change:

<variant>
   <parameters>
        <topicRef href="urn:xtm:sort"/>
   </parameters>
   <variantName>
        <resourceData>Roi s'amuse</resourceData>
   </variantName>
   <variant>
       <parameters>
           <topicRef href="urn:xtm:abc"/>
       </parameters>
       <variantName>
           <resourceRef xlink:href="..."/>
       </variantName>
   </variant>
</variant>

change to:

<variant>
   <parameters>
        <topicRef href="urn:xtm:sort"/>
   </parameters>
    <resourceData>Roi s'amuse</resourceData>
    <resourceRef xlink:href=""/>
   <variant>
       <parameters>
            <topicRef href="urn:xtm:abc"/>
       </parameters>
       <resourceRef xlink:href="..."/>
   </variant>
</variant>

2) baseName and baseNameString
-----------------------------
  <!ELEMENT topic
     ( instanceOf*, subject?, ( base | occurrence )* )
  >
    {...}
  <!ELEMENT baseName  ( scope?, baseNameString, variant* ) >
  <!ATTLIST baseName
     id              ID                  #IMPLIED
  >
-----------------------------
There two concerns:
- There is no way to associate same display name/ icon/etc
   with synonyms base names.
   You can only do it indirectly by repeating the whole
   <variant> conglomerate for each of the base name synonyms.
   This is called De-normalization and jeopardizing integrity.
   For this reason XTM produced from Techquila's "The 'Not Opera' Topic Map"
is getting ugly.
   Original:
 <topic id="t-joe-strummer" types="tt-person tt-musician">
  <topname>
   <basename>Joe Strummer</basename>
   <basename>J. Strummer</basename>
   <basename>John Graham Mellor</basename>
   <basename>J. Mellor</basename>
   <dispname>Joe Strummer</dispname>
   <sortname>Strummer, Joe</sortname>
   <sortname scope="normalised">strummer joe</sortname>
  </topname>
 </topic>
  Note that Kal's document is conformant to ISO 13250 :
-----------------
  <!element  topname O O
    (basename+, dispname*, sortname* )
  >
-----------------
I suggest allow more then one baseNameString elements per base name
otherwise why not turn baseNameString  into an attribute?


- I  also second Ontopians on the baseNameString being too long.

  I suggest changing DTD fragment above to:
-----------------------------
  <!ELEMENT topic
     ( instanceOf*, subject?, ( base | occurrence )* )
  >
    {...}
   <!ELEMENT base  ( scope?, name*, variant* ) >
  <!ATTLIST baseName
     id              ID                  #IMPLIED
  >
-----------------------------

Thanks,

Nikita.

-------------------------------------------------------
Nikita Ogievetsky, Cogitech Inc.
http://www.cogx.com
nogievet@cogx.com
(917)406-8734
Consultant in XML/XSLT/Xlink/TopicMaps
Cogito Ergo XML



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