Issue 13804: SBVR Issue: Model expression structure (sbvr-rtf) Source: NIST (Mr. Edward J. Barkmeyer, edbark(at)nist.gov) Nature: Uncategorized Issue Severity: Summary: Title: Model expression structure Specification: SBVR Version: 1.0 Source: Ed Barkmeyer, NIST, edbark@nist.gov Summary: SBVR clause 8.2 defines 'starting character position' as a means of reference to a substring of a Text object. And the definition of placeholder in clause 8.3.4 treats the placeholder as a syntactic substring that is identified by its starting character position. This is a junior programmer model of expressions -- a poor PSM -- and it doesn't work reliably for a number of surface languages. The idea is that the unspecified representation of a concept may involve an expression that has a syntactic structure. Since SBVR has no idea what that syntactic structure is (because it belongs to an undefined surface language for which SBVR is the metamodel), it must define a general model of expressions sufficient to support the idea that a placeholder is a subexpression, and has a surface-language-defined means of identification. Recommendation: In 8.2, Delete 'starting character position'. Replace it with a model of expressions that makes clear the point at which surface-language grammar and orthography determine the technical structure of the expressions. In 8.3.4, delete all references to 'starting character position' in the entry for 'placeholder', and replace them with references to the structural concepts (to be) defined in 8.2. In 8.3.4, delete 'placeholder has starting character position' and replace it with a relationship to a structural concept (to be) defined in 8.2. Resolution: Revised Text: Actions taken: March 19, 2009: received issue Discussion: End of Annotations:===== te: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:21:57 -0400 From: Ed Barkmeyer Reply-To: edbark@nist.gov Organization: NIST User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 (Windows/20081209) To: issues@omg.org CC: SBVR RTF Subject: SBVR Issue: Model expression structure X-MailScanner-Information: Please contact postmaster@mel.nist.gov for more information X-NISTMEL-MailScanner-ID: n2INLvVP014989 X-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-MailScanner-SpamCheck: X-MailScanner-From: edbark@nist.gov X-MailScanner-Watermark: 1238023319.67206@grxB/001eyGokp2JH4Gqkw X-Spam-Status: No Title: Model expression structure Specification: SBVR Version: 1.0 Source: Ed Barkmeyer, NIST, edbark@nist.gov Summary: SBVR clause 8.2 defines 'starting character position' as a means of reference to a substring of a Text object. And the definition of placeholder in clause 8.3.4 treats the placeholder as a syntactic substring that is identified by its starting character position. This is a junior programmer model of expressions -- a poor PSM -- and it doesn't work reliably for a number of surface languages. The idea is that the unspecified representation of a concept may involve an expression that has a syntactic structure. Since SBVR has no idea what that syntactic structure is (because it belongs to an undefined surface language for which SBVR is the metamodel), it must define a general model of expressions sufficient to support the idea that a placeholder is a subexpression, and has a surface-language-defined means of identification. Recommendation: In 8.2, Delete 'starting character position'. Replace it with a model of expressions that makes clear the point at which surface-language grammar and orthography determine the technical structure of the expressions. In 8.3.4, delete all references to 'starting character position' in the entry for 'placeholder', and replace them with references to the structural concepts (to be) defined in 8.2. In 8.3.4, delete 'placeholder has starting character position' and replace it with a relationship to a structural concept (to be) defined in 8.2. -- Edward J. Barkmeyer Email: edbark@nist.gov National Institute of Standards & Technology Manufacturing Systems Integration Division 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8263 Tel: +1 301-975-3528 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8263 FAX: +1 301-975-4694 Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:31:59 -0400 From: Ed Barkmeyer Reply-To: edbark@nist.gov Organization: NIST User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 (Windows/20081209) To: issues@omg.org CC: SBVR RTF Subject: REVISED SBVR Issue: Model expression structure X-MailScanner-Information: Please contact postmaster@mel.nist.gov for more information X-NISTMEL-MailScanner-ID: n2INW0YV015807 X-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-MailScanner-SpamCheck: X-MailScanner-From: edbark@nist.gov X-MailScanner-Watermark: 1238023924.51834@S1EjL4pG8tm9AIiMs+hYQg X-Spam-Status: No Title: Model expression structure Specification: SBVR Version: 1.0 Source: Ed Barkmeyer, NIST, edbark@nist.gov Summary: SBVR clause 8.2 defines 'starting character position' as a means of reference to a substring of a Text object. And the definition of placeholder in clause 8.3.4 treats the placeholder as a syntactic substring that is identified by its starting character position. This is a junior programmer model of expressions -- a poor PSM -- and it doesn't work reliably for a number of surface languages. In particular, for at least two graphical languages, the placeholder is a distinct graphical element having a text body. The starting character position for all such placeholders is always 1. But the graphical element has a logical 'position' in the expression structure. The SBVR idea is that the unspecified representation of a concept may involve an expression that has a syntactic structure. Since SBVR has no idea what that syntactic structure is (because it belongs to an undefined surface language for which SBVR is the metamodel), it must define a general model of expressions sufficient to support the idea that a placeholder is a subexpression, and has a means of identification that is defined in the surface language. Recommendation: In 8.2, Delete 'starting character position'. Replace it with a model of expressions that makes clear the point at which surface-language grammar and orthography determine the technical structure of the expressions. In 8.3.4, delete all references to 'starting character position' in the entry for 'placeholder', and replace them with references to the structural concepts (to be) defined in 8.2. In 8.3.4, delete 'placeholder has starting character position' and replace it with a relationship to a structural concept (to be) defined in 8.2. -- Edward J. Barkmeyer Email: edbark@nist.gov National Institute of Standards & Technology Manufacturing Systems Integration Division 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8263 Tel: +1 301-975-3528 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8263 FAX: +1 301-975-4694 From: Don Baisley To: "'SBVR RTF'" Subject: SBVR Issue 13804 -- Proposed resolution Thread-Topic: SBVR Issue 13804 -- Proposed resolution Thread-Index: Acpj2pUnNvy5CVfaTwmtP7bBzuGuZQ== Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:56:19 +0000 Accept-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: yes X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: At our SBVR RTF meeting in September, Donald asked me to prepare a resolution document for issue 13804, which is to be closed with no change other than our already agreed resolution to issue 13802. The document is attached. Best regards, Don Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:27:32 -0400 From: Ed Barkmeyer Reply-To: edbark@nist.gov Organization: NIST User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (Windows/20090812) To: SBVR RTF Subject: Draft resolution for SBVR Issue 13804 X-NISTMEL-MailScanner-Information: Please contact postmaster@mel.nist.gov for more information X-NISTMEL-MailScanner-ID: p2HMRaMa028628 X-NISTMEL-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-NISTMEL-MailScanner-SpamCheck: X-NISTMEL-MailScanner-From: edbark@nist.gov X-NISTMEL-MailScanner-Watermark: 1301005657.96006@Jxia/jWR/aOGmNVhevO0vA X-Spam-Status: No X-NIST-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-NIST-MailScanner-From: edbark@nist.gov Issue 13804 was last discussed a year ago. I composed the attached draft from my notes of that discussion. It doubtless still needs work, but perhaps we can clean this one up. The crux of this is not the issue as written; that was mostly resolved in 13802 in the interim document. The problem we discovered during the discussion is that we assume without ever saying it that the exchange form of fact type forms is plain text (which is not, of course, what one sees in the SBVR specification). -Ed -- Edward J. Barkmeyer Email: edbark@nist.gov National Institute of Standards & Technology Manufacturing Systems Integration Division 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8263 Tel: +1 301-975-3528 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8263 Cel: +1 240-672-5800 Issue 13804-draft2.doc OMG Issue No: 13804 Title: Model expression structure Source: Ed Barkmeyer, NIST, edbark@nist.gov Summary: SBVR clause 8.2 defines 'starting character position' as a means of reference to a substring of a Text object. And the definition of placeholder in clause 8.3.4 treats the placeholder as a syntactic substring that is identified by its starting character position. This is a junior programmer model of expressions -- a poor PSM -- and it doesn't work reliably for a number of surface languages. The idea is that the unspecified representation of a concept may involve an expression that has a syntactic structure. Since SBVR has no idea what that syntactic structure is (because it belongs to an undefined surface language for which SBVR is the metamodel), it must define a general model of expressions sufficient to support the idea that a placeholder is a subexpression, and has a surface-language-defined means of identification. Recommendation: In 8.2, Delete 'starting character position'. Replace it with a model of expressions that makes clear the point at which surface-language grammar and orthography determine the technical structure of the expressions. In 8.3.4, delete all references to 'starting character position' in the entry for 'placeholder', and replace them with references to the structural concepts (to be) defined in 8.2. In 8.3.4, delete 'placeholder has starting character position' and replace it with a relationship to a structural concept (to be) defined in 8.2. Resolution: It is inappropriate for SBVR to describe the syntax of expressions at all, and the idea of a sub-expression model is inappropriate for that reason as well. SBVR needs only to model the abstract syntax . the interpretation of the fact type form as comprising a designation for the .verb concept. itself and a set of designations for the fact type roles . the placeholders. The existing text supports this model. Because SBVR makes the fact type form the principal representation of a fact type in a conceptual schema, however, it is necessary for SBVR to standardize at least one fact type form syntax, so that SBVR tooling can successfully exchange conceptual schemas. The intention of clause 8.3.4 is to standardize one expression of the fact type form as a character string comprising a sequence of signifiers (placeholders and verb signifier) without additional markup. The function of 'starting character position' is to locate the substring that is the placeholder expression (verbatim) within that string. The text will be clarified on this point. In examining this issue, however, it was noted that .starting character position. is not defined in this section. The entry will be moved. The fact type 'placeholder uses designation' refers to a convention used in SBVR Structured English syntax, and thus has no reason to be standardized. It will be deleted, to avoid any confusion for users of the specification. (They are free to define whatever conventions they will.) Having clarified that the standard exchange form for fact type forms is "plain text", the remaining concern of the RTF was to enable other fact type form representations of the same fact type that use markup, as the SBVR specification itself does, while making it clear that these are not intended to be 'synonymous forms'. The intent is only to distinguish the 'plain text form' of an expression from a marked up form that uses XML or HTML markup syntax. This is addressed by adding a relationship among expressions. Revised Text: 1a. In clause 8.2 DELETE the entire entry for starting character position, including the Definition and the Concept type. 1b. In clause 8.3.4, immediately before the entry for placeholder is at starting character position, INSERT: starting character position Definition: positive integer that designates the ordinal position of the first character of a text expression within an encompassing text expression Concept Type: role 2. In clause 8.2, immediately after the entry for text, INSERT a new entry : text1 stylizes text2 Definition: text1 is a marked-up version of text2, using some conventions for display and other text characteristics. Note: This fact type allows an SBVR exchange document to contain shared signifiers in plain text form and relate them to some preferred display form, or some form that provides additional markups for other dictionary and vocabulary usages. For example, text1 may use XML or HTML markups based on a specified stylesheet. Similarly, part of a signifier may be marked up to refer to another entry, as this specification uses signifiers for noun concepts within placeholder expressions. 3 In clause 8.3.4, in the entry for fact type form, immediately before the first Necessity paragraph, INSERT: Note: For exchange purposes, it is a requirement that the expression representing the fact type form be a plain text character string in which the signifiers for the verb and the roles appear verbatim. This permits conforming tools to correctly manage the vocabularies and conceptual schemas in which the fact type forms are the primary representation of the fact type. It also permits different tools to use different display conventions for the elements of a fact type form, such as those used in this specification, without having such conventions interfere with correct interpretation of the intended signifiers by other tools. Marked-up expressions, for tools that agree on markup conventions, can be linked to the plain text expression using text1 stylizes text2. 4. In clause 8.3.4, in the entry for placeholder is at starting character position, immediately after the Synonymous Form paragraph, INSERT: Note: The placeholder text expression shall appear character-for-character in the fact type form, beginning with the starting character position. 5. In clause 8.3.4, DELETE the entire entry for placeholder uses designation, including the Definition, the Note and all 3 Examples. Disposition: Resolved From: "Donald Chapin" To: Subject: FW: issue 15635 -- SBVR RTF issue (re Resolved Issue 13804) -- TOPIC: Fact Type Forms and Starting Character Position Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2011 11:08:08 -0000 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 Thread-Index: ActlmC6D4Mp3Nzi2SfaOhLe5VQzHyR/wO06wAADiaEA= X-Mirapoint-IP-Reputation: reputation=Fair-1, source=Queried, refid=tid=0001.0A0B0302.4D833D4C.00AB, actions=tag X-Junkmail-Status: score=10/50, host=c2bthomr10.btconnect.com X-Junkmail-Signature-Raw: score=unknown, refid=str=0001.0A0B020A.4D833DFF.0204,ss=1,vtr=str,vl=0,fgs=0, ip=0.0.0.0, so=2010-07-22 22:03:31, dmn=2009-09-10 00:05:08, mode=single engine X-Junkmail-IWF: false First transmission didn.t work on SBVR RTF email list -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Donald Chapin [mailto:donald.chapin@btconnect.com] Sent: 18 March 2011 10:47 To: 'edbark@nist.gov'; 'sbvr-rtf@omg.org' Subject: RE: issue 15635 -- SBVR RTF issue (re Resolved Issue 13804) -- TOPIC: Fact Type Forms and Starting Character Position Ed, We have two open Issues on this topic: o Issue 15450 .fact type role designation. o Issue 15635 .Placeholder Concepts Model SBVR Structured English. Issue 13804 was resolved in Ballot 2 (see attached resolution), so I'm treating what you sent yesterday as part of the resolutions to either Issue 15460 or 15635 or both. I'm also resending the discussion diagram (attached) for this topic that I sent out in December. Donald -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Juergen Boldt [mailto:juergen@omg.org] Sent: 06 October 2010 21:44 To: issues@omg.org; sbvr-rtf@omg.org Subject: issue 15635 -- SBVR RTF issue From: webmaster@omg.org Date: 23 Sep 2010 18:48:36 -0400 To: Subject: Issue/Bug Report ******************************************************************************* Name: Ed Barkmeyer Employer: NIST mailFrom: edbark@nist.gov Terms_Agreement: I agree Specification: SBVR Section: 8.3.4 FormalNumber: formal/2008-01-02 Version: 1.0 Doc_Year: Year Doc_Month: Month Doc_Day: Day Page: 31 Title: Placeholder concepts model SBVR Structured English syntax Nature: Revision Severity: Minor CODE: 3TMw8 B1: Report Issue Description: In clause 8.3.4 of SBVR v1.0, the concepts: 'placeholder has starting character position' and 'placeholder uses designation' model the syntax of the non-normative Structured English language described in Annex C of the spec. These may not be properties of the syntax of other vocabulary and rules languages, and are unsuitable for graphical languages. The abstract syntax of any such language must be that a placeholder is an expression and must be unique within the fact type form. These requirements should be stated in the definition of placeholder. The placeholder expression is a designation for the role that is used only in definitions of the fact type, and its forms and roles. The idea of its "character position" is meaningless in graphical languages. The idea specified in 'placeholder uses designation' is a language convention that is not consistently used in SBVR and may well be different in other languages. The semantics of that syntactic construct is captured by 'role ranges over object type' in 8.1.1. Any convention for the syntax used by a tool is out of scope for SBVR. Therefore, both of these fact types should be deleted from the normative specification. Juergen Boldt Director, Member Services Object Management Group 140 Kendrick St Building A Suite 300 Needham, MA 02494 USA tel: +1 781 444 0404 x 132 fax: +1 781 444 0320 email: juergen@omg.org www.omg.org Resultions for Issues 13804 & 13802 (Ballot 2).doc Discussion Diagram for Issues 15635 & 15450.ppt