Subject: [TS] Re: Topic maps
From: Ben Darnell (bgdarnel@unity.ncsu.edu)
Date: Fri Mar 03 2000 - 09:17:04 EST
On Fri, Mar 03, 2000 at 01:06:44AM -0600, Eric Freese wrote:
> > 3: Out-of-line links
> > Associations between topics are stored outside of the <topic> element.
> > I think that inline links are preferable whenever possible (i.e.
> > whenever it is possible to modify both ends of the link), especially on
> > CPU- and memory-limited devices such as Palms. This is an
> > implementation detail, but it also matters on a higher level - in
> > ThoughtStream, you can[1] arrange links, notes, and other items in any
> > order within an idea. In XTM, the order of links and notes relative to
> > each other would be lost (order within a class of items could be
> > preserved, but is not guaranteed).
>
> I'm assuming (hoping) that you are using a data format optimized to work
> within the Palm device rather than the bare XML.
Yes, of course the Palm uses it's own encoding of the data for general
use instead of straight XML. But, I think that the Palm software should
be able to read/write the interchange format for infrared transfers
>
> If order is important, you could build links that set the order.
That would be a lot of extra links. Perhaps a better way would be a
"position" attribute.
>
> > 4: External data
> > Information is stored in a topic map in two ways - associations, which
> > link two (or possibly more? the spec wasn't clear on this) topics, and
> > occurences, which are links to documents outside the topic map. In TS,
> > information can be stored within the idea in the form of notes or other
> > data items. There doesn't seem to be any way in the standard topic map
> > format to cram this sort of data into the topic map.
>
> Associations can link as many topics as you want, but the semantics of the
> link aren't really defined. If you use the basic Topic Map structure, you
> could, for example, define a note element that occurs within the topic where
> the PCDATA is now. As long as you have topics, associations, themes,
> scopes, etc. you should be ok to add additional structure and be compliant.
> Interchange of the data may be an issue though since other topic map tools
> might not be able to handle the extra data.
Yes, I realize I could extend the format with extra elements, but my
point was that standard-compliant topic map tools would be unable to
read it.
Is the XML format for topic maps finalized yet? I've seen two different
DTDs posted to topicmapmail recently; does that mean that the format is
still in flux?
-Ben
-- Ben Darnell bgdarnel@unity.ncsu.edu http://thoughtstream.org------------------------------------------------------------------------ Planning a party? iParty.com is your complete source for party planning and supplies, with everything you need to throw the perfect party! http://click.egroups.com/1/1635/3/_/6321/_/952093028/
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