[topicmapmail] Expressive capabilities of Topic Maps

[Thomas B. Passin]

[Jack Park]

> Can it not be said that occurrences are essentially associations of a
> particular type such that the resource itself is the subject (role
> player) playing the role of, um, occurrence?
>

You certainly can implement them that way.  The only thing is that, in XTM,
an occurrence does not have to have an id.  For it to be a topic that plays
a role in an association, it would at least have to have an id of its own
(allowed but not required in TM).

The contrarian view is that occurrences could be modeled with less overhead
than by using an association, so in the interest of implementation
efficiency, it might be better not to use an association.

Cheers,

Tom P