Re: [xml-dev] XPath and a continuous, uniform information space - Recap

["Jeremy H. Griffith" <jeremy@omsys.com>]

On Sat, 17 Aug 2013 17:53:03 +0100 (BST), Hans-Juergen Rennau <hrennau@yahoo.de> wrote:

>Experiment #3: In experiments #1 and #2 the single map - or the set of maps - were a part of the node data, the node itself "decided" in which graphs to participate. There is something limiting about that. We may want to define new structure after-the-fact: without disturbing the nodes pulled into the graph, like a map does not disturb its entries. So an alternative would be to impose such nested maps purely from without - our info space would be a node forest *and* a collection of graphs connecting (reconnecting) nodes of that forest. But I have no idea how to define such graphs. I feel it would be a new kind of resource whose information content would be a graph definition interconnecting conventional nodes.

To someone who has been immersed in technical documentation
toolmaking for a long time, this sound a lot like what we
are already doing with formats like DITA:
  http://www.dita2go.com/ditaspec/_dita-1.2-specification.htm
and Mallard:
  http://projectmallard.org/1.1/

The individual documents/nodes are designed for re-use
in any map to generate the final result, and can be in
many maps at once, and even in the same map multiple
times (in different branches).  By design, the nodes
have no info on the maps, and the maps contain pretty
much only references to nodes (and to other maps).

The maps/graphs are therefore defined by the author of
the document, who is the person who imposes them from
without. 

>Do you feel the spirit of the whole approach? Not replace our node model, but to add to it - I am convinced that this is the way to go. And I am excited about how you and the other participants in this discussion gradually expose a new potential which might be tapped by introducing additional structure into the node forest which is and remains (if only for me) the ground layer from which to unfold the space.

Yes, this is very workable... and the ideas have been
a part of tech docs since the 1960's.  Well proven.


-- Jeremy H. Griffith <jeremy@omsys.com>
   DITA2Go site:  http://www.dita2go.com/