Re: [xtm-wg] The case against the TNC

[Geir Ove Grønmo <grove@ontopia.net>]

* Steven R. Newcomb
| Let me show you how the topic naming constraint can be invaluable in
| helping people use topic maps, using your own example.
| 
| Computer: Where do you want to go today?
| 
|     User: I want to go to Paris.
| 
| Computer: I know about two Parises.  Do you mean Paris in the scope of
|           France, or Paris in the scope of Texas?

...

| > Paris can quite legitimately be scoped by Texas, the US and North
| > America. If we try to find Paris the hero things get even worse, since
| > the scope may well be Greece and legend, Greece and history, Greece,
| > legend, history, Greece and mythology, Troja and so on and so forth.
| > Scope is, in short, too vague.
| 
| You have it backwards.  Users don't have to guess.  They can be
| prompted, and the prompts can and should depend on the scopes of
| the names.  That is the *purpose* of those scopes!
| 
| Computer: Ready.
| 
|     User: glug... uff... Paris... mmmph (*burp*)
| 
| Computer: Did you say, "Paris"?
| 
|     User: Yeah.  (*sounds of coughing and spitting*)
| 
| Computer: Are you interested in a city or a legendary, possibly
|           historical hero of ancient Greece?
| 
|     User: City.
| 
| Computer: I know about two such Parises.  Do you mean Paris in the
|           scope of France, or Paris in the scope of Texas?

I agree that this is how a computer and a user would be able to
interact by using the knowledge stored in topic maps.

Much of the problem in discussing the TNC is that it's not just about
disambiguating names, which is the assumption people seem to have. All
of the above examples are not really trying to disambigute the names,
but rather the topics to which the names are connected. This is
important.

In the examples _all_ [ambiguous - or not] names of a given topic
would have the same disambiguating themes! The themes are not specific
to a single name, but should apply to all names of that topic. 

These themes used are describing/qualifying the topic - not the name.

Geir O.


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