ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34N0724

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ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34

Information Technology --
Document Description and Processing Languages

TITLE: CTM Requirements
SOURCE: Mr. Steve Pepper
PROJECT: WD 13250-6: Information technology - Topic Maps - Compact syntax
PROJECT EDITOR: Mr. Gabriel Hopmans; Dr. Sam Gyun Oh
STATUS: Revised Draft
ACTION: For review and comment
DATE: 2006-04-08
DISTRIBUTION: National bodies
REPLY TO:

Dr. James David Mason
(ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 Chairman)
Y-12 National Security Complex
Bldg. 9113, M.S. 8208
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-8208 U.S.A.
Telephone: +1 865 574-6973
Facsimile: +1 865 574-1896
Network: masonjd@y12.doe.gov
http://www.y12.doe.gov/sgml/sc34/
ftp://ftp.y12.doe.gov/pub/sgml/sc34/

Mr. G. Ken Holman
(ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 Secretariat - Standards Council of Canada)
Crane Softwrights Ltd.
Box 266,
Kars, ON K0A-2E0 CANADA
Telephone: +1 613 489-0999
Facsimile: +1 613 489-0995
Network: jtc1sc34@scc.ca
http://www.jtc1sc34.org

Draft Requirements for CTM

Authors: Gabriel Hopmans, Sam Oh, Lars Heuer, Steve Pepper

Version: 1.0

1. Introduction

This document contains the draft requirements for CTM (Compact Topic Maps Syntax), which is the subject of Part 6 of ISO 13250.

CTM is a standard, text-based notation for representing topic maps. It provides a simple, compact notation suitable for manually authoring topic maps and providing simple examples in email and other documents. It is intended to complement the existing XTM syntax, not replace it.

This document has the following structure. After some editorial definitions we will define some basic concepts for authoring Topic Maps which we will use throughout the rest of the document. These set the stage for requirements of the standardization document and on requirements regarding the language itself.

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119].

2. Requirements on the document

This section lists requirements on the standardization document (ISO 13250-6).

2.1 Relationship to other standards

  1. The syntax of any URIs within CTM statements SHALL be governed by the rules of [RFC 2396] as modified by [RFC 2732].
  2. The native character set of CTM SHALL be [Unicode].
  3. CTM SHALL be based on the Topic Maps Data Model, Part 2 of ISO 13250 [TMDM].
  4. CTM SHALL be aligned with the syntaxes of ISO 18048 Topic Maps Query Language (TMQL) and ISO 19756 Topic Maps Constraint Language (TMCL).

2.2 Document structure

  1. ISO 13250-6 MUST have a clause which defines a formal syntax and the semantics of notation statements.
  2. ISO 13250-6 MUST have a conformance clause.
  3. ISO 13250-6 MAY define error situations and how CTM parsers are required to react to them or to flag them to the calling application.
  4. ISO 13250-6 MUST fully define the results of parsing CTM documents so that any given CTM document can only have one correct topic map as result.
  5. ISO 13250-6 SHOULD NOT include a CTM test suite.

3. Requirements on the syntax

This section describes the requirements for the CTM syntax itself, grouped by type.

3.1 Formal

  1. The CTM syntax SHALL be defined in terms of a formal, context-free grammar.
  2. The formal definition of the grammar MUST constrain topic maps to be written in [Unicode].
  3. CTM MUST be defined in terms of the Topic Maps Data Model [TMDM].

3.2 Functional

  1. CTM MUST be able to solve the use cases outlined in [Use Cases].
  2. CTM SHALL support all natural languages equally. CTM SHALL be fully internationalized with respect to text representation.
  3. CTM syntax MUST be aligned with the upcoming standards TMQL, TMCL, and GTM (Graphical Topic Maps Notation).
  4. CTM SHALL be usable for operation of the upcoming Part 2 of TMQL (insert and update operations).
  5. CTM MUST cover all aspects of the [TMDM].
  6. CTM MUST define the deserialization procedure of a CTM document to [TMDM].
  7. CTM SHOULD encourage the use of published subject identifiers (PSIs) instead of local identifiers.

3.3 Usability-related

  1. CTM MUST be optimized for ease of reading, ease of writing, and conciseness.
  2. The use of cryptic delimiters and lengthy keywords SHOULD be kept to a minimum.
  3. The needs of topic map authors SHALL take precedence over those of engineers. However, constructs from other languages that are familiar to engineers SHOULD be used where possible.
  4. It MUST be possible to formulate simple and frequently used constructs using short statements.
  5. It MUST be possible to write complex topic maps in a modular fashion.
  6. CTM SHOULD define directives in order to achieve its goals.

3.3 Implementation-related

  1. CTM SHALL be independent of any particular implementation technique or implementation language.
  2. The syntax SHALL be easy to parse.

4 References

[RFC 2119]
Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt.
[RFC 2396]
Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt.
[RFC 2732]
Format for Literal IPv6 Addresses in URL's, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2732.txt.
[TMDM]
Topic Maps Data Model, http://www.isotopicmaps.org/sam/sam-model/.
[Unicode]
Unicode 4.1.0, http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.1.0/.
[Use Cases]
Use Cases revision 1.4, http://semagia.com/tmp/CTM%20UseCases.html.

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