[topicmapmail] Co-trainers of a team, how do I do this?

[Kal Ahmed]

Hi Jan,

In my opinion, associations should be regarded as aggregating all of the
roles. So if the role players are independent of one another, it is
better to use separate associations. So your examples are two different
statements:

"A and B are trainers of team T"
vs.
"A is a trainer of team T" and "B is a trainer of team T"

To my mind, the former has more of a sense of aggregation about it. If A
was hit by a bus, would the team no longer have functional training
facilities ? The latter says that the two facts are more independent.

I would imagine that in the case that you cite, A and B function
together and the former statement is more accurate than the latter. But
consider the statement:

A and B are members of training staff
vs.
"A is a member of training staff" and "B is a member of training staff".

If A was hit by a bus again, B would presumably still remain a member of
training staff, so I would consider the latter model (two separate
associations) to be more accurate.

Cheers,

Kal

On Fri, 2003-04-04 at 20:54, Jan Algermissen wrote:
> Dear fellow topic mappers,
>  
> I am curious to hear your thoughts about the following
> modelling question:
>  
> Suppose there is a soccer team T that has two co-trainers,
> A and B. On what basis do I choose between the following
> topic maps to model this situation?
>  
> (1)
>  
> <topicMap>
> <topic id="trainership" />
> <topic id="trainer" />
> <topic id="team" />
>  
> <topic id="T" />
> <topic id="A" />
> <topic id="B" />
>  
>  
> <association>
>   <instanceOf>
>     <topicRef xlink:href="#trainership" />
>   </instanceOf>
>   <member>
>     <roleSpec>
>       <topicRef xlink:href="#team" />
>     </roleSpec>
>     <topicRef xlink:href="#T" />
>   </member>
>   <member>
>     <roleSpec>
>       <topicRef xlink:href="#trainer" />
>     </roleSpec>
>     <topicRef xlink:href="#A" />
>   </member>
>   <member>
>     <roleSpec>
>       <topicRef xlink:href="#trainer" />
>     </roleSpec>
>     <topicRef xlink:href="#B" />
>   </member>
> </association>
> </topicMap>
>  
> ...or...
>  
> (2)
>  
> <topicMap>
> <topic id="trainership" />
> <topic id="trainer" />
> <topic id="team" />
>  
> <topic id="T" />
> <topic id="A" />
> <topic id="B" />
>  
>  
> <association>
>   <instanceOf>
>     <topicRef xlink:href="#trainership" />
>   </instanceOf>
>   <member>
>     <roleSpec>
>       <topicRef xlink:href="#team" />
>     </roleSpec>
>     <topicRef xlink:href="#T" />
>   </member>
>   <member>
>     <roleSpec>
>       <topicRef xlink:href="#trainer" />
>     </roleSpec>
>     <topicRef xlink:href="#A" />
>   </member>
> </association>
> <association>
>   <instanceOf>
>     <topicRef xlink:href="#trainership" />
>   </instanceOf>
>   <member>
>     <roleSpec>
>       <topicRef xlink:href="#team" />
>     </roleSpec>
>     <topicRef xlink:href="#T" />
>   </member>
>   <member>
>     <roleSpec>
>       <topicRef xlink:href="#trainer" />
>     </roleSpec>
>     <topicRef xlink:href="#B" />
>   </member>
> </association>
> </topicMap>
> 
> 
> What are the reasons for choosing (1) and what are the reasons
> for choosing (2) ?
> 
> 
> Any hints welcome, thanks.
> 
> Jan
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jan Algermissen                           http://www.topicmapping.com
> Consultant & Programmer	                  http://www.gooseworks.org
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