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Re: [xml-dev] Xlink Isn't Dead

From: Jirka Kosek <jirka@-----.-->
To: Eric van der Vlist <vdv@--------.--->
Date: 9/23/2006 8:55:00 AM
Eric van der Vlist wrote:

> One of the thing which kept popping up is that TM are about defining
> links with multiple arcs and this is the domain of extended XLinks.

TM data model is much richer than extended XLinks and it is more high 
level and thus provides some direct sementics -- like roles, types and 
scopes for each association.

> However, XTM has chosen, for the sake of simplicity, to use simple links
> rather than extended links. 

XTM is just serialization and interchange syntax for Topic maps data 
model (TMDM). It could be possible to represent some TM constructs by 
extended XLink, but such mapping will be quite artifical and it would 
not gain much benefits. One of the biggest differences between TM and 
RDF is that each association in TM has also its own identity (it is also 
topic) so you can make statements about it. IIRIC XLink (similarly to 
RDF) doesn't directly support this mechanism.

So, basically XTM is serialization of graph of topic map and simple 
XLinks are used to express edges of this graph structure.

> If I am right, XTM can hardly pretend to be using XLink :) ...

XTM uses simple links as defined in XLink specification. ;-)

BTW, recently some people involved in TM development proposed to remove 
XLink dependency in a future version of XTM. But I think that final 
decision was to stay with current approach.

You can follow discussion here, if you are interested:
http://www.isotopicmaps.org/pipermail/sc34wg3/2006-March/003151.html

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