Title: RE: [tm-pubsubj-comment] formal syntax (was: Tuesday Conference)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Murray Altheim [mailto:]
...
> You have plenty of criticism of XTM, though given that XTM contains
> the ability to establish a fairly rich graph using a simple syntax,
> there's absolutely no reason why XTM syntax cannot be used to
> describe a rich taxonomy/ontology. It's a matter of developing the
> topic and association types used in that graph, and this TC is trying
> to describe how these should be published.
OK, I checked that: I can express anything I want to say in XTM, if it has to be (*sigh*). As I have seen here in Barcelona, XTM is more or less accepted as a worthy contribution by at least some relevant RDF people here ("if you have PSI, why shouldn't we use them").
I would prefer to have an XML Schema, sorting Typology from Topics, using inheritance, modular XML namespaces, etc, etc. But there are samples pro and con: Open GIS Consortium has started GML using DTD and then moved to Schema "on-the-fly" and now they are pretty stable and happy.
SVG is a lovely standard, and they use a DTD. Anything goes, if the standard is strong itself.
But, tell me, why not use XTM for PSI then? Are we ashamed of XTM?
> I'm in a sense waiting for something to settle before I publish a
> preliminary set of logical primitives as an XTM topic map, which is
> then usable in creating taxonomies and ontologies. Currently, XTM
> 1.0 includes association types for superclass and subclass (as PSIs),
> so taxonomies are already representable. Just as you mention XSLT,
> it's certainly possible to transform from any other XML-based
> taxonomy syntax into XTM and vice versa. I was in the process of
> working on Cyc when the OpenCyc project began, so I'm now waiting
> on that one too. *sigh*
I have to confess I do not know OpenCyc. Tell me more.
> Last year, Peter Becker and I began working on an XML syntax for
> Conceptual Graphs but were unable to figure out the abstract model
> behind it. Sowa et al are now working on Common Logic (which will
> include an XML serialization syntax), which I believe could be
> transformable bidirectionally into XTM syntax. If nobody else does
> it, I'll do it. But we'll have to wait awhile for that one, as I
> don't that train is moving that quickly right now.
If so, we should consider Schema !!! One more argument: we will need it to play a role within Web Services and ebXML.
> I really don't see all the weaknesses you describe as being barriers
> to implementation. No syntax is ever perfect but I believe XTM is
> sufficient, that we hit the 80/20 point pretty dead on. Those in
> the "20 league" will always want those missing features, but adding
> them or abandoning XTM at this point would simply cause people to
> abandon topic maps. We need some stability more than we need
> perfection right now, both in terms of syntax and specification.
> This TC's goal is to provide a simple means of publishing Published
> Subjects. If the TC fails, it will fail due to making the methodo-
> logy either too difficult or too removed from XTM, in my opinion.
>
OK, then let's use XTM for PSI, or drop XTM completely (no joke)
We might even use RDF for PSI. But - *please!!!* not a third thing.
If I can find the time, I would even think about re-writing XTM using XML Schema, so that any valid XTM document would remain valid.
I also had discussions with Steven Newcomb and Michel Biezunski today about adding an event-type with a temporal extent attribute and a location-type with a gml:boundingBox. May this points to the direction of an XTM 1.1 ....
Cheers
Thomas Bandholtz
CM / KM Division Manager; XML Netw ork Moderator
Competence Center Content Management
SchlumbergerSema
http://www.schlumbergersema.com
Kaltenbornweg 3
D50679 Köln / Cologne
Germany
+49 221 8299 264
PS:
> In the evening
> The rice leaves in the garden
> Rustle in the autumn wind
> That blows through my reed hut. -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu
I loved Haiku when I was young. For the moment I only remember a German translation of one that I've read in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums:
Der Sperling hüpft über die Veranda. Seine Füße sind naß.
This is a spring symbol.
