Re: simplerdf & Towards the future RDF library

HI Adrian,

> I totally see where Ruben wants to go with LD Fragments but that's where
> I start to have my issues. My current use cases are not really connected
> to what Ruben does (LD Fragments perspective I mean)

Just a quick remark here:
what we're doing with Linked Data Fragments
would very likely not have a place in any core RDF library.

Quite the contrary, I see the Linked Data Fragments library
as one of the primary users of such a core RDF library.
It's now already a primary user of N3.js,
but we need quite a bit more than that actually.

> This brings me to another thing: It's great that some people on this
> list can spend a lot of time bootstrapping important bits and pieces
> payed as research. For me and Thomas (partially, he does a hell lot of
> work in sparetime) this is not the case.

I understand.
Note that everything I do under https://github.com/RubenVerborgh
is done in my spare time as well. This includes N3.js and SPARQL.js.
I use these libraries heavily in my research, but they are my personal work.

The LDF code, on the other hand, is made in research time.
(Actually, most of it is still done on evenings and in weekends.)

> I think what Ruben actually asks is do we really want to
> have something like RDF Interfaces as a foundation.

To clarify what I was exactly saying:

1) We need an RDF library for JS, like Java has Jena.

2) We need a team to develop such a library.
The team should decide together about architecture.

3) RDF-Ext might be a good match,
but they might or might not like a team deciding about their architecture
(and I fully understand either way).

4) One of the core things we need to look at when developing a library
is internal and external representations of triples.
This will determine everything and we cannot easily cahnge.

5) I gladly stop developing N3.js as a separate library
and continue it as part of a bigger library developed by a team;
but then I really want 4) solved first.

> I personally don't think that RDF Interfaces is that important anymore.

Glad to hear that.
I'm not saying RDF Interfaces is bad;
it would just be good to have it up for discussion.

In particular, we should have something native to RDF and JavaScript.
And Nicola's simplerdf really sparked my interest.
Furthermore, we should benchmark decisions to be sure what we do.

> So my point is if we really going to do some new thing we need to have a
> clear understanding of what we aim to solve, agree on how we do that
> work and companies like Zazuko/us need to have a benefit from this.
> Otherwise investing time does not make sense.

+1, and I would extend "companies like Zazuko/us"
to "95% of people who want to build cool Linked Data apps in JavaScript".

…I like where this is going :-)

Best,

Ruben

Received on Saturday, 12 September 2015 20:45:10 UTC