[sc34wg3] A crazy idea regarding variants and Topic Maps standards

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Lars Heuer
>
> I wonder if TMQL and CTM shouldn't do the same: Be silent about
> variants, simply ignore them. :)

Reasons to support variants in CTM:

- taking them out means changing the syntax again (although in a
  limited way),

- means some topic maps cannot be exported to CTM without loss of
  information (although whether export to CTM is desirable is
  debatable).

I guess the reasons to not remove them from CTM are:

- it simplifies the syntax (marginally),

- prepares the ground for the future removal of variants (that is,
  it means one less change to 13250 in the future), and

- prevents users from using and getting attached to this feature
  (but if they use variants and like them, why would we remove
  them?).

Personally, I'm -0.5 on this. Let's just leave it there.

--Lars M.
http://www.garshol.priv.no/tmphoto/
http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/