[topicmapmail] Using MergeMap versus Doing Lots of Querying

[Thomas B. Passin]

[Miles Thompson
> So the question becomes.. is "nextBaseName.inScope(longFormScope)"
> supposed to return 'true' in the case that
>
> nextBaseName =:
>
>   <baseName id="id1759">
>     <scope>
>       <topicRef xlink:href="#llfname" />
>       <topicRef xlink:href="#mt_approved" />
>       <topicRef xlink:href="#hb_created" />
>     </scope>
>     <baseNameString>Dowlat-e Eslami-ye Afghanestan</baseNameString>
>   </baseName>
>
> longFormScope =:
>
> <scope>
>   <topicRef xlink:href="#llfname" />
> </scope>
>

I think this is an example  of something I have argued before - sometimes
there is a need to AND scopes together, and sometimes there is a need to OR
them.  My own topic map engine can do either.  Either the envetual spec
should make the distinction clear, or else whatever it specifies should
clearly be limited to specific situations so that the opposite kind of
processing can be applied in other situations (when useful, of course).

Cheers,

 Tom P