[sc34wg3] a new name for the Reference Model

Sam Hunting sc34wg3@isotopicmaps.org
Tue, 31 Dec 2002 11:27:43 -0500 (EST)


> > So what should be the new name of the RM?  I'm hereby
> > proposing "TM Modeling Principles".  We'll "test drive"
> > this name in the next iteration of the RM, to see if
> > we like it.
> 
> Forgive me for saying this, but I think "TM Modeling Principles" undersells
> what it is.  I think it has a lot more substance than being just a set of
> principles.  I would suggest something along the lines of "TM Canonical
> Metamodel".

I think that a little modesty is rare enough that we should prize it ;-)

Seriously, we struggled long and hard on the word. (Realists, apparentlym
believe this is a useful use of time; nominalists do not.) 

What we were looking for was a word that: (1) Did suggest that the "RM"
[sic] was a member of the set of things that we call internally
consistent. "Principles" did this. (2) Did not suggest that the substance
of the "RM" [sic] was a model, because it isn't. It enables models, but is
not itself (we feel) a model, certainly as the architects of the (S)AMs
woudl think of one.

An additional advantage of principles is that they can be enumerated --
Principle of A, Principle of B, so the word enables some useful language.

"MetaModel" is noted -- but my feeling is that it suggests the "more meta
than thou" wars, and I don't want to go there. 



> 	Cheers,
> 		Tony.
> ====
> Anthony B. Coates, Information & Software Architect
> mailto:abcoates@TheOffice.net
> MDDL Editor (Market Data Definition Language)
> http://www.mddl.org/
> FpML AWG Member (Financial Products Markup Language)
> http://www.fpml.org/
> _______________________________________________
> sc34wg3 mailing list
> sc34wg3@isotopicmaps.org
> http://www.isotopicmaps.org/mailman/listinfo/sc34wg3
> 

Sam Hunting
eTopicality, Inc.

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