[topicmapmail] Embedding XTM Was: XTM Datatypes

[Anthony B. Coates]

** Reply to message from Murray Altheim <m.altheim@open.ac.uk> on Fri, 06 Dec
2002 15:04:14 +0000

> I agree that it's relatively simple to extract <topicMap> elements
> from a larger document, and have no problem with this even though
> I still would have preferred it not have been allowed. But to
> allow other content within the topic map itself would essentially
> mean XTM was no longer XTM, but some mix of namespaces, hardly
> an interchange any longer but a way for companies to use features
> in competition as did Microsoft and Netscape. This did nobody any
> good in the end. It didn't create innovation, only balkanization.

I think there is a clear issue here of having one format being pressured to
satisfy two needs.  The original goal of XTM appears to have been to create a
simple interchange syntax for topic maps, one which could include references to
other documents via URIs.  However, I am one of the many potential users who
would like to be able to embed XTM within XML documents and link to non-XTM
items within those documents.  So, I guess what I really want is an embeddable
*variant* of XTM, one with guidelines telling people what the rules for
embedded use are.

Murray has made the point that it is not hard to extract a valid XTM document
from such a mixed document.  What would be very useful is a formal process for
this, so that there was a well understood way that such an extracted XTM
document would refer back to the general XML content in its original mixed
source document.  If we could get to this, it would allow people to create
small all-in-one documents with embedded topic map elements, without making
life impossible for XTM engines trying to import the information from these
documents.

Sound plausible?

	Cheers,
		Tony.
====
Anthony B. Coates, Information & Software Architect
mailto:abcoates@TheOffice.net
MDDL Editor (Market Data Definition Language)
http://www.mddl.org/