[topicmapmail] Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus On Line

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Thomas B. Passin
|
| This suggests to me that there is some rationale for considering
| instanceOf as being something a bit different from just another
| association.

* Nagarjuna G.
| 
| This is an important distinction to make, because I also maintain
| this distinction.:-).  Well, in the design of GNOWSYS classification
| is done separately by adding ObjectTypes and Objects, and
| associations as other kind of relations..  This is to essentially
| take care of the most widely used knowledge organizer `instanceOf'.

Most topic map implementations represent this relationship specially,
as far as I know, for reasons of both efficiency and ease of use, and
that is perfectly permissible according to the specification.

*Provided*, of course, that instanceOf represented with associations
is handled the same way...

| Logically instanceOf is a kind of transitive relation, but it is
| good to have this widely used relation separate for pratical
| reasons.

As Kal said, instanceOf of is *not* transitive, although
supertype-subtype *is*.

-- 
Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopian         <URL: http://www.ontopia.net >
GSM: +47 98 21 55 50                  <URL: http://www.garshol.priv.no >