Managing TEX Resources with XML Topic Maps

For many years the Polish TEX Users Group newsletter has been published online on the GUST web site. The repository now contains valuable information on TEX, METAFONT, electronic document, computer graphics and related subjects. However, access to the content is very poor: it is available as PS/PDF files with only a simple HTML page facilitating navigation. There is no integration with information resources from other sections of the site, nor with the resources from other LUG or CTAN sites. Topic maps were initially developed for efficient preparation of indices, glossaries and thesauruses for electronic documents repositories, and are now codified as both the ISO standard (ISO/IEC 13250) and the XTM 1.0 standard. Their applications extend to the domain of electronic publishing. Topic maps and the similar RDF standard are considered to be the backbone of corporate knowledge management systems and/or the Semantic Web [3]. The paper contains an introduction to the Topic Maps standard and discusses selected problems of Topic Map construction. Finally the application of Topic Maps as an interface to the repository of TEX related resources is presented, as well as the successes and challenges encountered in the implementation.