ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC34 N0278

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC34

Information Technology —

Document Description and Processing Languages

Title:	Topic maps, roadmap for further work
Source:	Lars Marius Garshol, JTC1/SC34
Project:	ISO 13250
Project editor:	Steven R. Newcomb, Michel Biezunski, Martin Bryan
Status:	Editor's draft
Action:	For information
Date:	17 December 2001
Summary:	Roadmap of the further work on topic maps
Distribution:	SC34 and Liaisons
Refer to:
Supercedes:
Reply to:	Dr. James David Mason (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 Chairman) Y-12 National Security Complex Information Technology Services Bldg. 9113 M.S. 8208 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-8208 U.S.A. Telephone: +1 865 574-6973 Facsimile: +1 865 574-1896 E-mailk: mailto:[email protected] http://www.y12.doe.gov/sgml/sc34/sc34oldhome.htm Ms. Sara Hafele, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 Secretariat American National Standards Institute 25 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036 Tel: +1 212 642-4937 Fax: +1 212 840-2298 E-mail: [email protected]

Topic maps, roadmap for further work

The SC34 WG3 meeting in Orlando drew up a roadmap for their further work, which is documented here.

One major decision that was taken was to turn ISO 13250 into a multi-part standard. This document defines the current understanding of the various parts.

1. Definition of new terms

A number of new terms were agreed on at the meeting. These are:

HyTM syntax: The HyTime-based SGML architecture for topic maps defined in the original ISO 13250 standard.
Serialization: The process of outputting an instance of a topic map model into some formal syntax expressed as a sequence of bytes.
Deserialization: The process of reading an instance of some topic map syntax and building an instance of some topic map model.
Reference model: The new name for the level 0 model (PMTM4), which emphasizes that it is intended to be used as a reference point for knowledge representations rather than as an implementation guide.
Standard Application Model: The new name for the level 1 model (infoset), which emphasizes that this is the topic map model, and that it is defined in terms of the reference model.

2. Overview of work

Individual tasks to be completed:

1. Reference model: A document based on PMTM4, which will define a reference model for topic maps, which can be used to define the relationships to other knowledge representations.
2. SAM defined in terms of the RM: Definition of the Standard Application Model of topic maps (3.) as an application of the reference model. (We need a better name.)
3. The Standard Application Model of topic maps: A model for topic maps using the infoset formalism (with informative UML diagrams) representing base names, occurrences, and variant names as separate constructs, based on the existing infoset proposal.
4. XTM Deserialization Specification: A detailed and formal specification of how to build instances of the SAM (3.) from XTM 1.0 documents.
5. XTM Serialization Recommendation (informative)
: A formal description of how to serialize instances of the SAM into XTM 1.0 syntax. It is currently thought that the necessary formality for conformance testing can be achieved without this document, but that it will be useful as an informative document. Its status is therefore expected to be informative rather than normative.
6. HyTM Serialization Recommendation (informative): A formal description of how to serialize instances of the SAM into HyTM syntax. It is currently thought that the necessary formality for conformance testing can be achieved without this document, but that it will be useful as an informative document. Its status is therefore expected to be informative rather than normative.
7. HyTM Deserialization Specification: A detailed and formal specification of how to build instances of the SAM (3.) from HyTM documents.
8. Canonicalization specification: A detailed and formal specification how to serialize instances of the SAM (3.) into canonical topic map documents. These documents will have the property that if produced from semantically equivalent SAM instances they will be byte-by-byte identical. This allows us to do automatic conformance testing.
9. HyTM Syntax Specification: A reformulation of the existing HyTM syntax in wording suitable to the new standard framework. (See open isues.)
10. XTM 1.0 Syntax Specification: A reformulation of the existing XTM syntax in wording suitable to the new standard framework. (See open isues.)
11. Canonical Syntax Specification: A specification of the syntax of canonical SAM instances. The process described in 8. produces instances of this syntax from instances of the SAM.

The TMQL and TMCL nodes are present in the diagram to indicate that they are tasks in need of completion, and what their relationships to the above tasks are. As they depend on the SAM further work on them is suspended until the SAM is stable.

2.1 Working documents

Below is a table of the documents WG3 will produce immediately. Note that these documents do not map directly to the parts of the final standard.

Provisional title	Contents	Editors
The Reference Model for Topic Maps	1. 2.	Steven R. Newcomb, Michel Biezunski
The Standard Application Model of Topic Maps	3. 4. 5. 6. 7.	Graham D. Moore, Lars Marius Garshol

It is expected that substantial drafts of these documents will be available for the Barcelona meeting of SC34 in May 2002.

8., 9., 10., and 11. will eventually have to be written as well, but at the moment no editors have been assigned to these documents. Unless any volunteers step forward these tasks must wait until the first two documents have been completed.

2.2. Parts of the final standard

Below follows the list of parts of the final standard as currently perceived.

Number	Title	Contents
???	???	1.
???	???	2. 3.
???	???	4. 5. 9.
???	???	6. 7. 10.
???	???	8. 11.

3. Open issues

A number of issues were raised at the meeting, but not resolved. These were:

Should we update the HyTM syntax to provide it with all the capabilities missing from it that XTM 1.0 has?
Actual definition of test suites and conformance testing procedures, is that to be left for OASIS, or does ISO want to do it?