[sc34wg3] Questions on N0396: (6) topic map item (how do I find all occurrences?)

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Jan Algermissen
|
| Since there is no [occurrences] property on a topic map item, does
| that mean that conforming applications need not provide a way to
| find all occurrences in a topic map? 

Nope. You can easily find all occurrences by traversing all topic
items and gathering together the occurrences found in their
[occurrences] properties.

| Does it mean that implementations are free to choose how they
| provide such information?  

As the conformance clause says, they are free to choose how they
provide *any* topic map information, so long as it has a clear
correspondence to the SAM.

| Doesn't that provide less interoperability than the SAM could
| provide? Is that a good idea?

Well, this is where things get tricky. What interoperability *can* SAM
provide? I'm gradually coming round to the view that it can't provide
any interoperability at all on its own. Only syntaxes,
query/constraint languages, and APIs can be interoperable, really.

This is why I suggested taking out the conformance clause in the SAM.
 
| The same applies to names and I do think that finding all names in a
| topic map belongs to the most basic interactions with topic maps.

Same response there, really. (And for variant names, and for
association roles, and for locators.)

-- 
Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopian         <URL: http://www.ontopia.net >
GSM: +47 98 21 55 50                  <URL: http://www.garshol.priv.no >