Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

March 30, 2010

CTM Goes To FDIS!

Filed under: CTM,Topic Maps — Patrick Durusau @ 8:39 pm

Topic map fans will be glad to learn that ISO 13250-6 Topic Maps — Compact Syntax (known to rest of us as CTM) has gone to FDIS!

The compact syntax is a shorthand syntax that is designed to make human authoring of topic maps easier and to be more readable than the XML syntax. It also adds features like templates to assist in authoring.

You will be amused/disapppointed/dismayed if you search for “CTM Examples,” (without the quotes) on popular search engines. “Hits” included:

We really need a lite-weight way to bring subject identity to HTML pages. (More on that in a future post.)

Useful CTM links for topic map fans:

  • Compact Topic Maps Syntax Tutorial A presentation by Lars Heuer, the principal author of CTM.
  • A CTM Tutorial A blog from Lars Marius Garshol. Heuer reports that the %mergemap directive has changed since this tutorial but otherwise is accurate. (I do like the image of happy CTM users. No, I won’t describe it, you will have to go see for yourself.)

As usual, it would be really helpful for others to read and comment on it now rather than after the text is final. Comments can be sent to: topicmapmail@infoloom.com, sc34wg3@isotopicmaps.org or posted to the CTM project page.

1 Comment

  1. I left a comment in Lars Marius’ blog and I think he will fix the %mergemap directive anyway, but here is the correct syntax:

    Instead of

    %mergemap xtm-source XTM

    you have to write

    %mergemap xtm-source http://psi.topicmaps.org/iso13250/xtm

    CTM sources can be merged as follows:

    %mergemap ctm-source http://psi.topicmaps.org/iso13250/ctm

    You may also use any other IRI to indicate the syntax of the source which should be merged in like

    %mergemap astma-source http://psi.example.org/AsTMa

    but CTM readers may not support the other notations (they are required to support CTM and XTM to be standard-conform, though)

    Comment by Lars Heuer — March 31, 2010 @ 6:34 am

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