[Open-bio-l] Re: bioentry_direct_links transitive?

Chris Mungall cjm@bdgp.lbl.gov
Wed, 1 May 2002 14:36:40 -0700 (PDT)


On Wed, 1 May 2002, Hilmar Lapp wrote:

> In essence that table establishes an association between bioentries,
> right? Do you treat such associations as transitive, and if so, do you
> reflect this in the db by multiplying the associations? I.e., if entry A
> has a cross-ref to entry B, and B has one to C, do you assume that A is
> in fact cross-referencing C, too, and if so, do you physically add this
> association?

I don't think so, I think the six degrees of seperation thing applies to
bioinformatics entities as much as people!

Good question though, I think it's context dependent. This is really a
matter of how you want to store your data and not something bioSQL
decides.

> 	-hilmar