Re: [xtm-wg] A challenge on "the graph"

[Lars Marius Garshol <larsga@garshol.priv.no>]

* Bernard Vatant
|
| They say indeed : Topic Maps are so simple. Why did you complicate
| them with all that unnecessary twisted syntax ?

I have to agree with Murray here: because that is where the value of
topic maps lie. What is interesting about topic maps is the features
they provide _beyond_ what a simple graph model does. 

Those who created the topic maps model painstakingly raised some
features up out of the generality of the graph model (occurrences,
names, ...). For the processing model to smudge all that back together
would be counter-productive, I think.

| The nodes of the same type have the same color. So have the arcs of
| the same type. Some TM elements will be nodes, some other will be
| arcs. There will be basic rules on the colors of nodes and arcs, and
| that's all there will be ...

Where will the URIs be? If they are left out we will be left with
something that is too vague to serve as the basis for implementations.
 
| BUT ... they know how to put these sets of colored nodes and arcs in
| a system and have algorithms to spider the graph and query and
| retrieve amazing things you just can't do in a relational data base,
| like : "Take any (A,B) in a set of entangled genealogical
| trees. Find every couple made of a descendant of A married to a
| descendant of B".

The query language I propose in my paper for XML Europe 2001, called
tolog, does precisely this. It's implemented on top of an ordinary
topic map API, so you don't need the graph model to do this.

| Or : "Find me a family where all members of three
| following generations were born, married and dead in the same
| county". Weird things like that. 

This too you could do. And there's nothing weird about it, in fact, I
think it will become very common and very useful.

| And they claim these algorithms have been around for ages.
 
They have. I reused Prolog...

| So we have at hand a conceptual model and a processing model, and
| query algorithms, all grounded in the most universal representation
| language I know, and I think less controversial than any of those
| passing by lately : mathematics ...

The test it will have to pass is: is it useful for our purposes? Does
it work better than the alternatives we have?

| What more ? We'll have a F2F meeting next week to put all that down in a
| single document for the community use.

Excellent! I'll be looking forward to this.

| Is NOW time span extendable up to one week ?

I have no problem with that.

--Lars M.


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