On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 00:32, Jonathan Rochkind <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I don't understand from your description how Topic Maps solve the
> "identifying multiple versions of a standard" problem.

It's the mechanism of having multiple identifiers for Topics, so, in pseudo ;

Topic "MARC21"
  psi "info:ofi/fmt:xml:xsd:MARC21"
  psi "http://loc.org/stuff/marc21"
  property #mime-type "whatever for the binary"

Topic "MARC 1.1"
  is_a "MARC"
  psi "info:srw/schema/1/marcxml-v1.1"
  psi "http://loc.org/stuff/marcxml-v1.1"
  property #mime-type "whatever 1.1"

Topic "MARC 1.2"
  is_a "MARC"
  psi "info:srw/schema/1/marcxml-v1.2"
  psi "http://bingo.com/psi/marcxml"
  property #mime-type "whatever 1.2"

Or, if if "MARC 1.2" is backwards compatible with 1.1 ;

Topic "MARC 1.2"
  is_a "MARC 1.1"
  psi "info:srw/schema/1/marcxml-v1.2"

Or, if I make my own unofficial version ;

Topic "MARC 2.0"
  is_a "MARC 1.2"
  psi "http://alex.com/psi/marc-2.0"

This is enough to hobble together what is and isn't compatible in
types of formats, so if your application is Topic Maps aware, this
should be trivial (including what format to ignore or react to). The
point is that you don't need *one* identifier for things; Topics are
proxies for knowledge, and part of the notion of "knowledge" is what
identifies that knowledge. Multiple PSIs help us leverage both rigid
and fuzzy systems.

As to the identifiers themselves (as in, the formatting), is that important?

Anyway, I'm suspecting I don't see what the problem seems to be. To
create "the best identifier" for things seems a bit of a strange
notion to me, but is this based on that there is only (or rather, that
you're trying to create) one identifier for any one thing?


Alex
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