[topicmapmail] Class heirarchy representation

[Robert Barta]

On Mon, Jun 02, 2003 at 02:00:04PM +0530, Shyam Peri wrote:
> Hey all,
> I am having a small doubt as how to solve the following problem.
> 
> I have modelled a class heirarchy to suffice my requirements.
> Eg: WorldClass has human beings as its subclasses and male-person and 
> female-person as the subclasses of human being
> 
> Diagram
> World Class
> |
> |-- Human Being
> |	|
> |	|-- Male person
> |	|
> |	|-- Female person
> 
> Now, how is that I can model this particular scenario using topic maps.
> I would be very much grateful to you[A, if you can provide me a solution.

Shyam,

I think it is important to distinguish between 'instances' and
'classes' as the TM paradigm allows you to. From there you simply
would create the concepts (classes) and connect them using a
'subclasses' association [using AsTMa notation for conciseness]:

   human
   bn: Human Being

   male

   (subclasses)
   subclass : male
   superclass : human

   female

   (subclasses)
   subclass : female
   superclass : human

Notated in XTM this would be a fair bit longer[1] but you can use the
online converter. I am not sure whether

  http://topicmaps.it.bond.edu.au/docs/16/toc

helps here.

\rho

[1] http://astma.it.bond.edu.au/astma=-tutorial.dbk