[topicmapmail] core PSI question

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Jason Cupp
| 
| I'm reading the XTM 1.0 document http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/core.xtm. For
| class, there's subject indicators of:
| http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/index.html#psi-class
| http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/#psi-class-description

Actually, these URIs shouldn't be used. The correct one is the URI
below. Since the identity of the topic is defined by the URI, and not
what it points to, it is very important to use the correct URI, since
otherwise software will not recognize the URI and so won't know what
you mean when you use it.

| But isn't http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/1.0/core.xtm#class just a
| topic reference (and a source locator), not a subject indicator?

Very good question, and one that has been debated quite heavily in the
community since the publication of XTM 1.0. It was recognized back
then that a <topic> element does in a real sense indicate its subject,
so strictly speaking you can regard that URI as referring to a subject
indicator.

However, during the process within the OASIS PubSubj TC focus shifted
more to human-readable subject indicators, and so today one would
usually prefer prefer indicators in HTML that are meant to be read by
humans, possibly with an optional XTM representation for ease of use.

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