Re: Definitions of namespace IRI/prefix added to RDF Concepts (was: Re: Ambiguity of "RDF namespace")

On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 10:49:09PM +0100, Richard Cyganiak wrote:
> There is a new section in the RDF Concepts introduction called ?RDF
> Vocabularies and Namespace IRIs?:
> http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/rdf/raw-file/default/rdf-concepts/index.html#vocabularies
> 
> It adds new (informative) definitions for the terms ?namespace IRI?
> and ?namespace prefix?, points out that they're useful for
> abbreviating IRIs, and points out that the term ?namespace? on its own
> has no well-defined meaning in an RDF context.
> 
> I'm not quite satisfied with it ? it reads a bit like something that
> belongs into the Primer.
> 
> If anyone has ideas how to improve it (including ?DELETE!?) then
> please share. Otherwise I'll revisit it once we have a draft of the
> Primer.

Just an aside...

After arguing against a formal definition for "namespace" and for
avoiding its use in formal specs (except when referring to XML
namespaces), I tried to avoid using the word in discussions on a
different mailing list but found myself resorting to awkward
circumlocutions.  Richard also uses it in a recent posting [1].

Maybe it _should_ be given an explicitly informal definition in
the Primer.

Tom

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-rdf-wg/2012May/0417.html

-- 
Tom Baker <tom@tombaker.org>

Received on Tuesday, 22 May 2012 22:45:44 UTC