Re: Comments on RDF/A Syntax (Editor's Draft 27 October 2005)

Jeremy,

Thanks for your comments. A quick response below.

> 1. "rdf:about" instead of "about"
> "rdf:about" is pretty well-known. To learn a new attribute,  
> "rdf:about" and "about" are no difference. Just a name to remember...
> e.g., <p rdf:about=""><a rel="dc:creator"  
> href="mailto:bill.gates@microsoft.com">Bill Gates</a> blah blah</p>
> => { <> dc:creator <mailto:bill.gates@microsoft> . }

Having rdf:about but xhtml2:rel, xhtml2:property, and xhtml2:href  
seems inconsistent. Having them all scoped as rdf: is not possible  
without adding to that namespace, which seems like overkill.

Note also that rdf:about is completely unknown to the HTML community,  
so I suspect this would cause more confusion than consistency.

> 2. use the "type" attribute for typed literal
> The "type" attribute is from the anchor element.
> e.g., <p rdf:about=""><a rel="dc:date"  
> type="xsd:dateTime">2005-11-25T00:46:00+0800</a> blah blah</p>
> => { <> dc:date "2005-11-25T00:46:00+0800"^^xsd:dateTime . }

So you're suggesting "type" instead of "datatype". I'm not expert  
enough on this issue to say which is better. Any particular reason  
for your suggestion?

> 3. use of Production "propertyAttr" [1]
> I recommend to use "propertyAttr" for the case of "nodeElement" [2]  
> only, never "emptyPropertyElt" [3]
> e.g. <p rdf:about="" dc:subject="SemanticWeb">blah blah blah</p>
> => { <> dc:subject "SemanticWeb" . }

This is an issue which we've currently put off. In the current draft,  
a property is never declared as an attribute except in special HTML- 
specific cases (like class and role). We may take this up again,  
though right now we're leaning towards simpler, fewer methods of  
saying the same thing.

-Ben

Received on Sunday, 27 November 2005 22:42:09 UTC