Re: [topicmaps-comment] TAO vs. ERA

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

* Lars Marius Garshol
|
| If you're displaying a list of topics you should display all of them,
| even if they have no name in the current scope, or even a name at all.
| It's much better for the user to see that there's *something* there
| than to hide the fact that there are more choices ...

* Bernard Vatant
| 
| That may sound a silly question, but how do you display a topic with
| no name to the TM user?

At the moment we display the (configurable) string [No name] as a link
to that topic. There are different strings for when the chosen name
turns out to have a null value or an empty string.

| Like an icon or something like that? Will look weird to most people:
| there is something there, but from where I am, I can't even name it
| ... 

This is what the Omnigator does, and you should remember that the
Omnigator is mostly used as a demonstration tool, and for debugging
topic maps. So for these purposes this is the ideal behaviour.

When people make their own applications they have the ability to just
to it the easy way and end up with this string for topics which have
no name, or they can check and take the action they consider
appropriate.

| It makes sense for someone knowing what topic maps are about and
| that a topic sort of exists under/beyond its characteristics ... but
| remember the user is not necessarily aware of that, and even not
| aware of using a topic map at all, if the technology is "under the
| hood".

Absolutely.
 
| Could you expand on your vision of that?

As I see it, when the software is in the position that it's being
asked to display a topic which has no name in the given context
something is wrong. The software does nobody a favour by hiding the
problem, but should instead try to make the best of the situation
(displaying some other name), or, if that is not possible (there are
no names), clearly show that there is something there, but that there
is something wrong with it.

Hidden problems are the hardest to find.

--Lars M.