[topicmaps-comment] TMs & XTM [Was: skills to create topic maps]

[Tony.Coates@reuters.com]

On 29/11/2001 19:34:16 "H. Holger Rath" wrote:

>- And finally (I couldn't resist) about TMs and XML. XTM is the
>interchange syntax and I would never ever edit or tweak a TM in XML.
>Same as you would produce an ASCII dump out of Oracle, edit it in emacs
>and load it again into Oracle. Sorry to say, but XTM could also have been
>ASN.1-based, which is somehow unreadable binary stuff - it would fulfil
>the same purpose of a standardized interchange (!) format. We selected
>XML because it is hype and it makes some sense to have XTM (one of these
>senses was the marketing effect!), not because it is a readable format
>you can edit TMs in.

What a great loss, though, if XTM is nothing more than an opaque transmission format between topic map engines.  If everyone took that view, I think it would kill a lot of the existing enthusiasm for topic maps, because it would suggest that there is no standard way of connecting your application to the information in a topic map.  The great value of XML is that there are so many tools available that can do useful things with it.  I think you should give more thought to the value of being able to intercept XTM travelling between topic map engines and apply standard XML tools to it.  Assuming that XTM is just a private format for the use of topic map engines greatly undervalues its possibilities, in my opinion.

     Cheers,
          Tony.
========
Anthony B. Coates
(1) Content Distribution Architect - Project Gazelle
(2) Leader of XML Architecture & Design - Chief Technology Office
Reuters Plc, London.
Tony.Coates@reuters.com
========



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