I use PhotoImpact which is a PS-like product, but at a much cheaper price. It's one of the best value of these types of apps IMO, though certainly not the best either.

These "topic maps" seem interesting, to be sure. But I wonder, how do you create them without tremendous amounts of work? Is it suggested that this would somehow be automated in a file system?

-JavaJones (August 09, 2006, 08:55 PM)

They are, or at least they can be. There is already quite a bit of metadata floating around your computer, it just needs to be pulled into the Topic Map. In some ways there is more opportunity to add metadata than there is data added. For Example: do you add data to all the fields that MSWord allows? Or even what Windows allows? Do you fill out your MP3 tags and all your EXIF and IPTC fields?

I'd think that the software should assume that if the fields are not filled out then the user doesn't want to know.

But there is a lot of fuzzy stuff that can be gained by keeping a look at what's going on:

• who wrote what when
• what filetype was used
• what programmes read/write those filetypes
• how many times has a file been read or written
• etc.

If methods were exposed so that software could update their own records then that is an option as well. But that has been noted elsewhere (I think about MS, IFilters and indexing) that that is not the best option.

TinyTim has an example of creating a Topic Map from filesystem information: which would give the base structure component.

Once some sort of structure is in place some sort of Edit functionality could be provided to allow editing of the Topic Map, say by drag and dropping files onto descriptors, etc.

Here is some more interesting bits:

• Topic Map Solutions for Kodak Digital Camera Accessories
• Building a Topic Map Repository
• TMview

I think I'm at the point that I've got to install something and start playing  ;)

- Perry

Interesting indeed! But .NET. Not ideal IMO. But maybe worth something...

-JavaJones (August 07, 2006, 11:32 PM)

It's amazing what you find when you start looking (and a bit embarrassing how old some of this stuff is)...

Without realising it what I think I was meaning was Topic Maps. For those who don't know, Topic Maps are an XML standard. There are quite some well matured Java tools for creating and manipulating Topic Maps but not many on Windows (at least that I've found). Of interest:

• TM4J is an open source topic map engine project in Java.
• The Omnigator is a free topic map browser that can display any topic map. There's also an online demo.

I also found quite a few posts about Windows FileSystem and Topic Maps and how they'd missed the boat (for example this post) which echo's Oshyan's statement:

It's up to Microsoft to take the lead on this unfortunately and all indications are they dropped the ball with WinFS. :(

-JavaJones (August 07, 2006, 01:12 AM)

So, to my surprise, there has been a lot of thinking across most of the platforms about this topic already and quite a few implementations; unfortunately not a lot on Windows (is that an opportunity or what??).

But I guess the good news is that if an XTM format was to be used there are already lots of source code out there demonstrating the use of that data in various ways (not necessarily Topic Maps either I guess?) and tools around to help.

- Perry