Re: in...of syntax Re: Turtle Last Call: Request for Review

Andy Seaborne wrote:
> On 30/07/12 12:04, Nathan wrote:
>> SPARQL is a different spec, used for different reasons, I can't
>  > personally see what there is to explain.
> 
>> Honestly, what's the tricky difference that needs explained, and why
>> would anybody need or want to know it?
> 
> A concern that has been raised by danbri, supported by others, is that
> 
> [[
> Every difference we create between SPARQL and Turtle diminishes the
> value and teachability of both…
> ]]

As DanBri said in the same email:

 > If (a) it could be done identically in SPARQL 1.1 and Turtle (b) it
 > was done with punctuation (e.g. ^) rather than pseudo-English, i'd be
 > supportive.

The deviation he referred to was syntactical, using "in ... of" rather 
than ^. As I understand it, Dan can of course confirm.

> This WG has been trying to move Turtle and SPARQL closer together.
> 
> One is a syntactic transformation (Turtle), the other is part of the 
> mechanism for pattern matching, so they need explaining differently. 
> SPARQL ^ is much more general.
> 
> And hence,
> 
> SPARQL Update does not support ^:p in INSERT DATA
> 
> because it's not a matching operation.

Yes, because Turtle is a syntax, and SPARQL is a query language (as you 
well know), that deviation is already there, the two are different specs 
for different purposes, however can and do share some syntax. For 
example: Do we have TURTLE Update? or Turtle ?s, or Turtle SELECT? or 
Turtle ASK? No because it's not a querying language, and it doesn't 
require a matching operation.

Best,

Nathan