Re: (ISSUE-40) Builtins and logic functions in BLD

Michael Kifer wrote:

>>Michael Kifer wrote:
>>
>>>I made a proposal that we should treat builtins using the same mechanism as
>>>modules. For instance, if a builtin is defined in the XQuery/XPath library
>>>then we would refer to it as
>>>
>>>    fn:dateTime(...)@http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions
>>>
>>>where fn is a prefix for http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions

You mean that "http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions/#dateTime" 
(possibly abbreviated "fn:dateTime") is a Const of type rif:iri, right?

Then, I agree with Dave:

>Dave Raynolds wrote:
>>Isn't the URI enough to avoid clashes?

Why do you need more than that to identify built-ins?

> For builtins the module system is not needed. It was just one way to
> indicate that we are dealing with something that is defined by an external
> library.  I recall that people did not like the idea of deciding whether
> something is a builtin or not based solely on iris.

Could those people (who did not like the idea of deciding wether...) 
explain why (they did not like that idea) to me?

Also, are we talking about external calls (prcedural attachments) in RIF 
in general, or about RIF-BLD built-ins, here?

If we are talking about RIF-BLD built-ins, I do not understand the 
discussion about having to decide whether someting is a built-in or not: 
aren't built-ins listed and specified as part of the RIF-BLD 
specification? It seems to me that here is nothing to decide: either 
"http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions/#dateTime" is listed in the 
RIF-BLD spec as a built-in, or it is not. Did I miss something?

> But, on the other hand, the same builtin may be defined by different
> libraries, and the module system may open a way to use different libraries.

Are you talking about different implementations of the same built-in? 
Here again, if we are talking about RIF-BLD built-ins, isn't that out of 
   scope?

Christian

Received on Tuesday, 20 November 2007 14:04:43 UTC