RE: [topicmaps-comment] TMs & XTM [Was: skills to create topic ma ps]

["Mason, James David (MXM) " <mxm@ornl.gov>]

I second Tony. Editing a TM in any XML encoding (I've used my own as well as
XTM) is a pain, but I've sure done it. I wouldn't want to maintain some of
the monsters Tony builds by editing the XTM representation, but I'm doing a
map of about 1000 lines right now, and it's quite managable in XMetaL if I
take a little care. While I'm developing a TM application, I can't think of
any other way I'd rather do it.

Jim Mason

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Tony.Coates@reuters.com [SMTP:Tony.Coates@reuters.com]
> Sent:	Monday, December 03, 2001 10:14 AM
> To:	topicmaps-comment@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject:	[topicmaps-comment] TMs & XTM [Was: skills to create topic
> maps]
> 
> 
> 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
> ========
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------- ---
>         Visit our Internet site at http://www.reuters.com
> 
> Any views expressed in this message are those of  the  individual
> sender,  except  where  the sender specifically states them to be
> the views of Reuters Ltd.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription
> manager: <http://lists.oasis-open.org/ob/adm.pl>