Re: [web-annotation] Language Literals not supported within the Body

Here's the number 1 reason why:

RDF does not allow for both language and data type to be associated 
with the same literal.  Thus you cannot have a string that is both 
text/plain and in English.  This is a critical requirement that 
language tagged strings cannot accomplish, and thus we have to work 
around it by mandating a TextualBody resource with predicates 
(dc:format and dc:language).

And the number 2 reason why:

Given number 1, we could still allow language tagged strings... but 
that would be very confusing, especially as there would be both type 
(rdf:type) and @type (data type of the literal), value (rdfs:value) 
and @value (the value of a literal), and language (dc:language) and 
@language (the language tag of the literal).  Also, it would be 
inconsistent between @type (literal) and format (resource) as to where
 to put the data type.

Pros:
 * Common practice for RDF -- Isn't our primary focus.  We aim for 
compatibility and following best practices where possible, but not at 
the expense of ease of understanding and implementation.
 * Allow multiple languages -- Is a big concern, and one that is 
addressed already with Choice + TextualBody with dc:language.  It is 
explicit that it is a choice between two comparable resources, and not
 simply two different bodies.
 * Language is explicit -- I think that it is explicit already. It's 
associated with the resource, not the literal.

In the unpublished working draft we moved away from overloading body, 
and explicitly added bodyText, see: 
http://w3c.github.io/web-annotation/model/wd2/#string-body


-- 
GitHub Notification of comment by azaroth42
Please view or discuss this issue at 
https://github.com/w3c/web-annotation/issues/149#issuecomment-181462980
 using your GitHub account

Received on Monday, 8 February 2016 16:54:20 UTC