Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 15:33:27 +1000
Subject: Question regarding TMDM 2005-07-13
From: Bob Colomb <colomb@itee.uq.edu.au>
To: <jtc1sc34@scc.ca>
Dear Mr. Holman
I am on the OMG Ontology Development Metamodel working party. The ODM
includes a MOF metamodel for Topic Maps. I have taken over this aspect from
Lewis Hart, formerly of AT&T. His original work was based on the TMDM of
2003-11-05, and I am bringing it up to date with TMDM 2005-07-13.
I have a question regarding scope and type.
Following the figures in TMDM 2005-07-13, it appears that the following
constructs can have both scope and type:
Association (Fig 7)
TopicName (Fig 4)
Occurrence (Fig 6)
The following can have scope but not type
Variant (Fig 5)
The following can have type but not scope
AssociationRole (Figs 7, 8)
And the following can have neither scope nor type
Topic
On the other hand, in the text of 5.3.4, first sentence, it says
"All topic characteristics have a scope."
And in 5.3.3, first sentence, it says
"A topic characteristic is a topic name, occurrence or association role ..."
Which together imply that association role can have a scope, making a
conflict with Figures 7 and 8.
Could you please let me know which is correct? I assume you will report this
apparent inconsistency to the committee.
Thanks very much,
Bob Colomb
Dr. Robert M. Colomb
Reader
Data and Knowledge Engineering Group
School of Information Technology
and Electrical Engineering The most thought-provoking thing about
The University of Queensland our thought-provoking time
QLD 4072 Australia is that we are still not thinking.
www.itee.uq.edu.au/~colomb Heidegger
Phone +61 7 3365 1190
Fax +61 7 3365 4999
