[sc34wg3] Essence of the TMRM

[Robert Barta]

On Mon, Aug 23, 2004 at 08:36:14PM +0200, Lars Marius Garshol wrote:
> 
> * Martin Bryan
> | 
> | How can I say using XTM that the subject is the one that is the
> | eighth entry in the third column of image 3 on page 2081 of The
> | Compact OED (which, incidentally, is where I go to look up the
> | official English language definition of the term Topic!). I know how
> | to do this in HyTime, but have no idea how to do it in XTM.
> 
> I guess the answer is that neither do I. I could tell you stuff you
> already know, like that you could use XPointer and so on, but of
> course that only works if the Compact OED is in XML, which I suppose
> it's not.
> 
> So in reality I'm afraid the answer is that this is one of the things
> we lost when we dropped HyTM. :-|

Why?

As I understand XTM is using consistently URIs (not URLs) for
addressing purposes. This means that no one can stop me to use
a URN as subject indicator or even identifier:

   urn:x-martin-bryan:oed;page(2081).images(3).column(3).entry(8)
   ^^^
   a name, not a locator
       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
       belongs to Bryan alone
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                      he can do what he wants in his home

Admittedly, this is technically not _inside_ XTM.

Still, there is the issue whether this structure can be so formalized
that it can be "disclosed" to someone else. The brutal truth is: No,
not without additional assumptions.

This is true for XTM and anything else, I'd guess.

\rho