[topicmapmail] Merging associations

[Lars Heuer]

Hi Joril,

>>Since TMAPI is a collection of Java interfaces you have the freedom to
>>implement anything you want (as long as you fullfil the interface
>>contracts). If you want a TopicMap.mergeIn(Association) method: add it.
>>As said, it would be strange to have something like that in TMAPI.
>>That's implementation specific.

> Yea, I am fully aware of this... I never meant an implementation, merely an
> added method in the Association interface, like the mergin() method in the
> Topic class. To indicate that this method should be realized..

It is not there, because TMAPI is the "user" perspective. TMAPI is not
a tutorial "How to implement a TM engine". I suspect that a user needs
a TopicMap.mergeIn(Association) method.

[...]
>>Maybe it would be nice if tinyTiM provides a utility that removes
>>duplicates, but in "runtime mode" it is too expensive to check for
>>duplicates.

> Yes , I agree, this is also true for the MTV implementation that runs on
> mobile phones. The question is; should it be checked at startup or shutdown?

If I have to write a DuplicateSuppression class I'd let the user
decide when she likes to remove duplicates from the TM. If a user does
not care about duplicates you won't waste her resources and time ;)
Merging topic maps might be another subject, here you can take care
that an association is not added to the topic map if the association
already exist.

> Do you know if other implementations merge associations?

I think [TM4J] takes care that an association is not added to the TM
if it already exist. You can look into the (if I remember right)
TopicMapCopier class.

[TM4J] http://www.tm4j.org/

Best regards,
Lars
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