Re: [seul-edu] Pangée, LingoTeach, QVocab and data interchange

[Doug Loss <dloss@suscom.net>]

On Tue, 01 Feb 2000, Thomas Temp? wrote:

> Obviously, EduML is about handling students records and such, not
content. And even then, would a single DTD be sufficient to easily manage
data both for Qvocab and LingoTeach, let alone the rest?

Bruno or Odile, could you enlighten us here?  I thought that there were
tags in EduML for content.  Am I mistaken, or did Thomas miss them?  It's
possible that we're both right and have different interpretations of
"content," of course.

> What we need, in order to go beyond the one-to-one import filters, is a
data formalization that embraces all of the projects around. This would
allow to build a single DTD, say EduResML, for educational resources. And
we won't get any further than pathching filters upon existing programs
until we've built that EduResML. Or am I mistaken?
> 
This seems to me like an overwhelming problem.  I think you'll need
multiple XML DTDs, each for a subset of educational content.  Trying to
design a DTD to cover grammar, botany, art, and algebra would be very
difficult, I think.

> Such a project could lead to a much wider-scope DTD, which would allow
for an all-in-one interchange format, and in the same time trace the way to
_the_ ultimate language-learning project.
> 
I think it would be better to have the multiple DTDs I mentioned and
combine data from each as necessary.  Think of each DTD as a DBMS table
definition, with "reference" tags that can be used to refer to other DTDs
as needed.  That isn't very clear, I'm sure.  Sorry.

> Now, has this point already beed raised a hundred times, is it outside
the scope of this mailing-list, or is it of any interest if we want to move
toward efficiently-designed XML?
> 
It's certainly not outside the scope of seul-edu.  It's part of what the
group was created for!

-- 
Doug Loss            There's no trick to being a humorist
dloss@suscom.net     when you have the whole government
(570) 326-3987       working for you.
                        Will Rogers