RE: A triple is not unique.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Seth Russell [mailto:seth@robustai.net]
> Sent: 18 November 2000 16:57
> To: RDF-IG
> Subject: A triple is not unique.
> 
> 
> The triples in my computer are different from the triples in
> your computer.  If I assert to my computer:
> 
> <description about="uri1">
>   <foo>uri2</foo>
> </description>
> 
> I will have the triple [uri1, foo, uri2] in my computer.  If
> you read the RDF statement above, you will have the same
> triple in your computer. Now if I refer to a triple with the
> syntax:

The number 1 is not unique.  If you have a 1 in your computer
and Dan has a 1 in his computer, and I refer to the number 1,
then which 1 am I referring to?

The point here is that the triple is abstract.  What you have
in your computer is a representation of a triple, not the triple
itself.

Giving a URI to a triple will not help.  You'd have to decide if
you the URI named the triple - i.e. the abstract thing - in which
case you have changed nothing, or a particular representation of
a triple, in which case you don'thave a means to refer to the
triple.

Brian McBride
HPLabs