Re: Dropping the redundant colon in N3

Tim Berners-Lee wrote:

> The problem is this.  There is a clash with keywords.  There are of course
> a limited number of keywords, such as bind, @prefix, a, has, of, to which
> I am tempted to add with time (which?...).  Any language which uses
> a set of special keywords in a space of identifiers open to the
> user has a problem with evolution,  If I allowed unprefixed identifiers
> now then any keyword I add later could invalidate old N3 documents.

Ok I see your point.  But do we really need keywords?  I think every N3
statement should be in the model, not in some syntactic nether land.   To me "in
the model" means that every statement builds an arc.   If you go with this you
do loose the fluff words like "has" and "of" but I don't think you loose
anything else.  For instance if you want to use "a" and "=" you just require
that something like [a rdfs:equivalentTo rdfs:type] be asserted in the default
schema.  Probably the only thing that will make you uncomfortable is expressing
quantification, but i've sure that every needed quantifier could be stated using
pronouns something like:

ClintonSays
       = {Clinton noSexWith Monica; speaksTruthAt GrandJury };
       forEach [the:Statement#x a Lie].

This should imply a [rdf:type Lie] arc from each of the reified statements in
the context ClintonSays.

What do you think?

So with that in mind here would be my new signature:

@prefix : http://robustai.net/#.

Seth
     preferedEmail "seth@robustai.net";
     properName "Seth Russell".
SethQuestion =
{
Seth
     wantsToKnow [who:Person#x willProgram Sembrowser].
who:Person#x
     worksWellWith Seth;
     fluentIn RDF, N3, VB, VFoxPro, "C++", SQL;
     canEasilyLearn BerkeleyDB;
     salaryRequirements "0".
BerkeleyDB
     see http://www.sleepycat.com/.
Sembrowser
     description "Semantic Web Browser";
     aka MyMemory, ContexBrowser, Emouth, CyberMind;
     willBeLike [Moasic wasto DumbWeb].
};
forEach [the:Statement#x a Truth].

Received on Tuesday, 23 January 2001 20:17:27 UTC