[sc34wg3] DM conformance

[Patrick Durusau]

Greetings,

An observation on the question of TMDM conformation (see the end of 4. 
The metamodel):

*****4. The Metamodel*****
Issue (sam-conformance)
Should the DM have a conformance section of its own? If so, what does it 
mean to conform to the DM?
*****/4. The Metamodel*****

Note that the XML Infoset treats the issue as follows:

********XML Infoset Conformance Clause************
3. Conformance

Since the purpose of the Information Set is to provide a set of 
definitions, conformance is a property of specifications that use those 
definitions, rather than of implementations.

Specifications referring to the Infoset must:

* Indicate the information items and properties that are needed to 
implement the specification. (This indirectly imposes conformance 
requirements on processors used to implement the specification.)

* Specify how other information items and properties are treated (for 
example, they might be passed through unchanged).

* Note any information required from an XML document that is not defined 
by the Infoset.

* Note any difference in the use of terms defined by the Infoset (this 
should be avoided).

If a specification allows the construction of an infoset that has 
inconsistencies as described above under Synthetic Infosets it may 
describe how those inconsistencies are to be resolved, and should do so 
if it provides for serialization of the infoset.
************/XML Infoset Conformance Clause*************

See in full at: http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset/

Taking the idea that conformance to the XML Infoset is a "conformance is 
a property of specifications that use those definitions" one finds, for 
example:

The XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 spec claims conformance to the XML Infoset
Appendix A: XML Information Set Conformance, 
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-xpath-datamodel-20031112/, which lists the
properties used from the Infoset.

If we follow this path, does seem like conformance to the data model is 
something that would be claimed in the other parts of ISO 13250. Whether 
we want to also follow the Infoset lead and specify what is required to 
claim conformance, is another question.

I rather like the idea of specifications claiming conformance to the 
data model as well as documenting why they are conformant.

Does rather neatly resolve the issue of how one requires conformance to 
a set of definitions in the abstract and places the burden on 
specifications using the definitions to say which ones they use, etc.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Patrick

-- 
Patrick Durusau
Director of Research and Development
Society of Biblical Literature
Patrick.Durusau@sbl-site.org
Chair, V1 - Text Processing: Office and Publishing Systems Interface
Co-Editor, ISO 13250, Topic Maps -- Reference Model

Topic Maps: Human, not artificial, intelligence at work!