[topicmapmail] Any design guidelines for roletyping?

[Thomas B. Passin]

[Marc de Graauw]

> I must say this ability to express a classifying aspect as either a topic
> subclass or a role type makes me feel uneasy. It makes it all too easy to
make
> the wrong design choices. Suppose I model 'Verdi' as person, and use
> 'composer' as a role type because the 'composer' aspect only seems
relevant in
> relation to particular operas Verdi wrote. When I later decide the
'composer'
> aspect merits a place in the topic type hierarchy after all, this means
> serious maintenance (make 'composer' a topic type which is a subclass of
> 'person', make every person who plays a composer role an instance of this
> type, and remove the 'person' topic type for all composers since they are
now
> an instance of 'composer' which already is a subclass of 'person').
>
> Maybe this just means good design is hard work, which is no news :-)

If and when we learn how ***people*** accomplish these distinctions, we may
be able to do a better and more flexible design.  If that way turns out to
be compatible with topic maps, so much the better!

Tom P