Public identifiers and topic maps

John Cowan (cowan@locke.ccil.org)
Fri, 25 Sep 1998 17:20:41 -0400


The current draft of ISO/IEC 13250, Topic Navigation Maps (a
standard architectural form) explicitly takes Steven Newcomb's
view of the meaning of owner identifiers in FPIs: scarcely surprising,
since he is one of the editors.

In particular, clasue 6.1.1 reads in part:

# [T]he registration indicator, public text class, and language fields
# are as specified for formal public identifiers in ISO/IEC 8879:1986.
# The 'topic authority' [the string after the "+//" or "-//"] is
# the owner of <em>the information resource</em> that defines the
# concept. [Emphasis added.]

SGML tribal elders (a set which I am not a member of) may wish to
protest this language and similar language elsewhere in the draft
before it becomes hard-coded in an ISO standard.

-- 
John Cowan	http://www.ccil.org/~cowan		cowan@ccil.org
	You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
	You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
		Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)