RE: [xtm-wg] Status of Core Deliverables document

["Michel Biezunski" <mb@infoloom.com>]

> One issue that will have to be decided very early on at the
> Paris meeting is the status of the 1.0 Core Deliverables
> document.
>
> The document itself claims that it is not subject to any future
> change:
>
>  > The contents of this XTM 1.0 Core Deliverables document, including
>  > the XTM 1.0 Document Type Definition (DTD), the XTM 1.0 Published
>  > Subject Indicators (PSIs), and the XTM 1.0 Conformance clause,
>  > represent portions of the XTM 1.0 Specification that are not
>  > subject to any future change that would invalidate any XTM
>  > document or XTM application that conforms to the syntactic and
>  > other constraints that the DTD, the PSIs, and the Conformance
>  > clause are intended to impose in order to guarantee reliable
>  > interchange of Web-based topic map information in XML.
>
> However, it is unclear whether this refers to this particular version
> of the document, or the final 1.0 version (whenever it might be
> delivered).

It refers to this particular version of the document. The document instances
that are created and conform to that DTD are XTM 1.0 compliant.

>
> A number of the comments on the Review Specification urge (minor)
> changes to the DTD which is also contained in the Core Specification,
> so we really need to know at an early date whether the DTD is now
> cast in stone or not.
>
> Could the editors, and others, please make their position known?

The only changes in the DTD that are compatible with the above statement are
those which do not invalidate any document instances conforming to the DTD
published
in December.
A change such as:
<!ELEMENT x (a|b)* >
can be modified into
<!ELEMENT x (a|b|c)* >
for example, without damaging the existing implementations.

But it would be better to avoid even these kind of changes if we can. We all
need to make a special effort to consider that at one point we have a spec
out, and that it reflects the current state of consensus. I don't think
anybody can ever say that a standard is definitive, but at least we have
to make it clear that investments which are made by users on topic mapping
their information have to be preserved in all cases. This has already
started since 1.0 is out. If we don't take this into account, nobody will
want to take the risk of investing in a ever moving standard, which is not
properly maintained.

Michel
==========================================
Michel Biezunski, InfoLoom
Tel +33 1 44 59 84 29 Cell +33 6 03 99 25 29
Email: mb@infoloom.com  Web: www.infoloom.com
==========================================


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