[sc34wg3] SAM-issue term-scope-def

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Marc de Graauw
| 
| I see 3 ways around this problem:
| 
| 1) Drop the word 'only' in the SAM. Topic Map 1 does not say
| anything about the validity of the basename when {german} does not
| apply.

We need to do that, and get in something like the "only known to be
valid when" instead. I'm still not sure why you weren't happy with
that solution.
 
| 2) Distinguish between topic and subject. Topic Map 1 says that
| 'tennis' is NOT a valid basename for topic T1 when {german} does not
| apply, but it does not say anything about whether 'tennis' is a
| valid basename for the subject when {german} does not apply.

I've thought about this now, and I think it is more-or-less equivalent
to what I originally wrote. That is, this means that the absence of a
statement about a topic is not sufficient to conclude that the
statement (applied to the subject) is false. 

I think phrasing it as "only known to be true" when the scope applies
is clearer.
 
| 3) Insist that 'tennis' in T1 and T2 are two distinct basenames, not
| the same basename. 

We already do that, actually.

See the last para in this section:
  <URL: http://www.y12.doe.gov/sgml/sc34/document/0299.htm#N916 >

| So Topic Map 1 only says something about the basename in Topic Map
| 1. This solution did not seem right to me. It is like saying: "My
| mother Mieke and my aunt Mieke have different names which contain
| the same string". This solution is not ruled out by the Topic Name
| equality principle in XTM, though.

This part of the proposal I didn't understand. Can you explain?
 
| XTM and 13250 relate names with topics, SAM with relates names with
| subjects. I wondered whether this change was intentional and whether
| there are any consequences.

It was certainly intentional. I felt that XTM and 13250 were far too
sloppy about when they used "topic" and when they used "subject"
(generally, I thought, they would use "topic" in both cases), and did
my best to correct that.

The whole point of creating a base name is to make a statement about
the subject, which is why the SAM is phrased the way it is.

-- 
Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopian         <URL: http://www.ontopia.net >
ISO SC34/WG3, OASIS GeoLang TC        <URL: http://www.garshol.priv.no >