[topicmapmail] Announcement of XML Schema for ISO 13250 Topic Maps

[Murray Altheim]

Martin Bryan wrote:
[...] 
> Now lets go back to the real problem. Try writing an XML Path based query
> into an XTM representation of a topic map, and then try writing one based on
> an XML Schema that uses role names as element names.
> For my topic maps I have something like:
> 
> ?Standard/Names/Acronym["RDF"]?GET?FormsBasisFor
> 
> For XTM I get something along the lines
> 
> ?Topic/TopicNames/BaseName["RDF"]?GET?Occurs/Type["FormsBasisFor"]
> 
> OK not much apparent difference for such a simple query, and of course I
> will be told that "tools will hide all this crap from users" again and
> again. I don't care about what end-users see - I do care about how easy it
> is for system administrators to work out what the problem really is when an
> irate managing director is yelling down the phone asking why the answers the
> stupid topic map engine returned were not the ones he expected to see, and
> that the administrators job is on the line if the correct answers aren't in
> the board room in 2 minutes. In such real life situations you need to
> maximize the amount of real information available to the administrator. This
> is where typed elements will come into their own - in those situations where
> quick decisions are needed.

This argument is based on the erroneous assumption that common XML-based
query mechanisms can be used to query either ISO 13250 or XTM topic map
documents. As was pointed out to me several months ago (admittedly to my
dismay), these solutions simply cannot work because a topic map document
(represented in either syntax) is not simply an XML document. An XPointer
or XPath query would ignore proper merging and provide an erroneous result.

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim, SGML/XML Grease Monkey     <mailto:altheim&#64;eng.sun.com>
XML Technology Center
Sun Microsystems, 1601 Willow Rd., MS UMPK17-102, Menlo Park, CA 94025

      In the evening
      The rice leaves in the garden
      Rustle in the autumn wind
      That blows through my reed hut.  -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu