Subject: [siprec] Metadata-04 - definitions

From: "Elwell, John" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:22:26 +0200

(as individual)

1. Section 3 "Definitions"
The content of this section is not what I would expect to see under "Definitions". My concerns are:
- I would expect dictionary definitions.
- Normally the singular form of the noun should be defined (the plural form is implicit). So we might have a definition of "attribute", but not "attributes", for example.
- We should not have definitions within definitions (e.g., saying what object diagrams are within the definition of Metadata Model).
- The definition of "Metadata classes" describes how a class is represented in a model, but does not define what a class is.
- The definition of "Attributes" is circular ("Attributes represent the attributes...").
- The definition of "Linkages" is far too long. It goes way beyond a definition, and also describes types of linkages, diagrammatic representations of linkages, properties of associations, etc..

I already made a proposal for a revised definition of Metadata Model: "Metadata model: An abstract representation of metadata using a UML class diagram." This illustrates the sort of thing we should be aiming at for each definition. We should avoid trying to include a tutorial on UML (and hence my suggestion earlier that we should have a reference - perhaps an informative reference would be sufficient). This might avoid the need for definitions - I don't know.

I doubt we have a need to define "XML element" and "XML attribute". Also the definition of "XML attribute" talks of an attribute as being an element, which must be wrong.

John

John Elwell
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