Bits of algebraic syntax

I think, by inclination and recent experience, that life will be  
easier if we adopt a higher level (yet less implicit) algebraic  
syntax. You see a bit of it here:
	http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/DataAccess/rq23/ 
rq24.html#OptionalMatchingDefn

I.e., Opt(A,B).

This is not used for any other operator (that I saw)! (Union for  
example). I recognize that this is significant editorial work, but it  
would make it easier to discuss and specify general features and to  
relate the concrete syntax to the algebraic operators (often, the  
keyword is also called an operator, which is a bit confusing).

I'll be using, mostly, algebra like stuff from the Semantic and  
Complexity of SPARQL, in following posts, regardless of what we  
decide to do with the spec. I presume we can translate to whatever we  
feel like.

But I wouldn't mind having the bits of Algebra and being able to  
abstract away from some of the syntax details.

Cheers,
Bijan.

Received on Monday, 9 October 2006 21:30:50 UTC