Re: Oh my GOD, another datatype document.

On 2002-02-06 18:35, "ext Pat Hayes" <phayes@ai.uwf.edu> wrote:


> So we think of literals as kind of syntactic label which is placed in
> the graph for use by datatyping, but if no typing information is
> available is treated like a blank node.
> 
> That 'explains' why literals are not allowed to be subjects, since
> obviously it doesnt make sense to assert properties of nothing. :-)
> ...

Cool. Somehow this feels right.

>> Does this make things easier for everyone?
> 
> Yes, it would. But I think there will still be howls if we do this,
> because people really want to be able to write
> 
> <Jenny> <age> "10" .
> 
> and have it mean that Jenny is ten. And if literals are tidy, that's
> impossible.

But we wouldn't get such triples. We treat 'inline' triples
expressed in some serialization (XML, N3, etc.) as contracted
forms of the bNode idioms.

The graph will always have the bNode with the rdf:value arc
hanging off it.

So, in N3, someone would write

  <Jenny> <age> "10" .

and in the graph we'd get

  <Jenny> <age> _:1 .
  _:1 rdf:value "10" .

and of course folks are free to also write the
full form as they please

  <Jenny> <age> [ rdf:value "10" ] .

which emphasises the symmetry to the local idiom

  <Jenny> <age> [ rdf:value "10"; rdf:type xsd:integer ] .


> If we are willing to put up with the howling, I'd go along with that
> decision. It would make our task easier, it would simplify the RDF
> syntax and MT,  lighten the burden on implementors, and it would
> enable everyone on the WG to have exactly what they want, all at the
> same time.

Excellent. 

Now, I'm not so naive as to think that there won't be howling, but
I do think that we can package up the convergence solution in such a
way that it has minimal impact on how folks are presently using
RDF, with no impact at all to most folks.

Of course, we still haven't heard from the majority of the group,
and I look forward to comments about this both on the list and
on Friday.

Cheers,

Patrick

--
               
Patrick Stickler              Phone: +358 50 483 9453
Senior Research Scientist     Fax:   +358 7180 35409
Nokia Research Center         Email: patrick.stickler@nokia.com

Received on Wednesday, 6 February 2002 13:11:50 UTC