Re: Tentative contribution to the "URI issue"

>> [...]
>> RIF is an exchange language for rule sets that are not necessarily
>> web-related.
>> There are tons of such sets.
>
> I agree with Michael here.
I agree that there are lots of rule sets which are not Web-related. I do
not agree with Michael's conclusion that we not use URIs in such a case.
I support Dave's argument earlier in this threat.

In fact, if you want to use local symbols for your predicates are
constants, you have to be really careful about how you want to treat them.
RDF treats such local symbols as existentially quantified variables.  I
guess we do not want to do that here.
However, the question is then what to do when merging rule sets which
have local symbols with the same name.

If you use URIs for the interchange, you circumvent these problems.

I guess the point here is that the use of URIs really facilitates the
interchange, no matter whether a rule base to be interchanged is
"Web-based" (whatever that may mean).
>> Second, in a complex KB, you always have internal predicates that
>> shouldn't
>> be visible outside. Why should they be given a URI?
>
> I agree even more! One detail of momentous importance that seems to
> escape
> anyone envioning a system where *all* identifiers and constants are URIs
> is that these are precisely that - *universal*. In other words, they
> defeat the concepts of local scoping, hiding, and modularity - something
> desirable for any respectable programming idiom. Namespaces are a
> poor-man
> way of somehow working around this flatness.
I agree with Dave's argument that the concepts of scoping and modularity
are completely orthogonal to the use of URIs. At the moment I am not
sure whether we need hiding or not.

Best, Jos
>
> My .02 (CDN)$...
>
> -hak

-- 
Jos de Bruijn,        http://www.debruijn.net/
+43 512 507 6475         jos.debruijn@deri.org
DERI                      http://www.deri.org/
----------------------------------------------
Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise 
to complex and intelligent behavior.  Complex 
rules and regulations give rise to simple and 
stupid behavior.
 - Dee Hock

Received on Wednesday, 21 March 2007 15:10:31 UTC