[topicmaps-comment] Topic Map Standards

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

FYI: because the ballot to amend ISO/IEC 13250 has passed, the XTM 1.0 DTD
is now a part of the ISO/IEC standard. 

That means we shouldn't make distinctions in the future between "ISO 13250"
and "XTM" (of the sort that I've seen in recent postings). BOTH the HyTime
metaDTD originally published in the standard and the XTM 1.0 DTD are now
equally parts of the standard. Each one provides an approved ISO/IEC
mechanism for interchange of Topic Maps.

To avoid confusion, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 has adopted the practice of calling
the original HyTime form "HyTM", in parallel with "XTM" for the later form.


SC34 has published a document by Michel Biezunski and Steve Newcomb that
summarizes what we see as the differences between HyTM and XTM:
http://www.y12.doe.gov/sgml/sc34/document/0277.htm. We expect the
relationship between the two notational conventions to be further elucidated
by revisions to the standards and by other work in progress in SC34. There
is a graphic at http://www.y12.doe.gov/sgml/sc34/document/0278.ppt (or
http://www.y12.doe.gov/sgml/sc34/document/0278.gif) that will be expanded
into a full roadmap for the relationship among the various components of the
Topic Map standardization project. We need to keep clear that the transfer
serialzations are not the definition of Topic Maps: The standard is the
definition. SC34 intends that the supplementary standards will clarify the
meaning of Topic Maps without changing their essential nature. (We also
recognize that other transfer serializations are possible, outside the
standard.)

The explanatory text of XTM 1.0 remains as it was, where it was. However, we
should remember that this is provisional text and that the definitive
interpretation now will be progressed by SC34 as we fill in the roadmap.

Jim Mason

James David Mason, Ph.D.

Y-12 National Security Complex
Bldg. 9113, M.S. 8208
P.O. Box 2009
Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-8208

+1 865 574 6973

Chairman, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34
http://www.y12.doe.gov/sgml/sc34/ornlsc34oldhome.htm