Re: URIRefs are not "opaque" identifiers; mapping RDF substructure to KIF

[Patrick Stickler, Nokia/Finland, (+358 40) 801 9690, patrick.stickler@nokia.com]


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ext Sandro Hawke" <sandro@w3.org>
To: "Patrick Stickler" <patrick.stickler@nokia.com>
Cc: <phayes@ai.uwf.edu>; <mbatsis@netsmart.gr>; <www-rdf-interest@w3.org>
Sent: 25 September, 2002 20:30
Subject: URIRefs are not "opaque" identifiers; mapping RDF substructure to KIF


> 
> > Also, URIs are fully opaque to the RDF MT, and we needed for
> > the datatype and lexical form components to be visible to the
> > MT, hence a new node type that does not have quite the level
> > of opacity as URIrefs.
> 
> URIrefs are not opaque identifiers.  They have substructure which is
> open to examination and is an Internet Draft Standard.  (Every web
> browser has to use it, of course.)

They are opaque to the RDF MT and are treated simply as
names. Yes, applications operating above the level of the
RDF MT are free to look into URIs and interpret them according
to their internal structure, but inference engines and other
generic tools operating on an RDF graph based on the RDF MT
may not do so.

Patrick