Re: Smart Literal proposal

Stephane,

(I'm responding to just the first few lines of your message.  I haven't 
studied your example.  Please ignore if not helpful.  Also, trimmed reply 
list.)

See also, "interpretation properties":
   http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/InterpretationProperties.html

#g
--

At 16:23 22/10/04 -0400, Stephane Fellah wrote:

>Hi,
>
>
>
>I am trying currently to qualified literal with more attributes than 
>xml:lang and rdf:datatype.
>
>
>
>In RDF, there are two three types of literal.
>
>
>
>* Plain Literal, which consists of a string with an optional attribute 
>xml:lang
>
>* Typed Literal, which is a string with rdf:datatype attribute.
>
>* XML Literal, which is a literal representing an XML literal.
>
>
>
>Sometimes, it is necessary to qualified further a typed Literal without 
>creating a resource. For example, a unit of measure or a codespace 
>(taxonomy) in which the value belongs to (tree name taxonomy for example). 
>The only way to describe these attributes in the current RDF 
>specification, is to create an anonymous resource having these different 
>properties. This makes the serialization of RDF in XML pretty lengthy and 
>ugly to read by human.
>
>
>
>Here an example (in a sloppy syntax, I apologize)
>
>
>
><Road>
>
>    <length>
>
>         <value rdf:datatype="&xsd;float">10</value>
>
>         <gml:uom rdf:resource="urn:opengis:uom:meter">
>
>    <length>
>
>    <surfaceType>
>
><value>asphalt</value>
>
><gml:codespace rdf:resource= urn:ataxonomyofsurfacetype />
>
>    </surfaceType>
>
><Road>
>
>
>
>A more elegant way to serialize this would be:
>
>
>
><Road>
>
>       <length gml:uom="urn:opengis:uom:meter" 
> rdf:datatype="&xsd;float">10</length >
>
>       <surfaceType  gml:codespace= 
> urn:ataxonomyofsurfacetype >asphalt</surfaceType>
>
><Road>
>
>
>Please note that this syntax will bridge some gaps with current XML 
>document syntax defined in XML schema.
>
>
>
>The problem with this syntax is that RDF parsers such as ARP or Jena, 
>would return an error because no other property attribute can be used with 
>rdf:datatype.
>
>
>
>In RDFS, a literal is a subclass of Resource, however most of RDF API does 
>not use the same hierarchy. In Jena for example, Literal is subclass of 
>RDFNode and not Resource. So it does not provide the ability to add 
>additional properties to a literal. However, if we follow the ontology, I 
>should be able to add either annotation property to Literal or subclass 
>the class Literal with additional properties (probably would be in OWL 
>Full in this case).
>
>
>
>If a Literal was a subclass of resource, the former RDF example could be 
>represented in a canonical way:
>
>
>
><Road>
>
>    <length>
>
>         <Literal>
>
>            <rdf:datatype rdf:resource="&xsd;float"/> (this is an 
> extension of rdf)
>
>            <rdf:lexicalform>10</rdf:lexicalform>  (this is an extension 
> of rdf)
>
>            <gml:uom rdf:resource="urn:opengis:uom:meter"/>
>
>         <Literal>
>
>    <length>
>
><Road>
>
>
>
>Note that rdf:datatype and rdf:lexicalform does not seem to be defined in 
>RDFS or RDF, but may be needed to support RDF API.
>
>
>
>This form would be equivalent to the previous compact example. The only 
>constraint we would have to the literal interface is to have properties 
>with resource URI or string values. May be they should be annotation 
>properties. Technically, tuning existing a parser to support this 
>extension would not be a big job. The question is whether this is valid 
>with RDF semantics or not.
>
>Is there any reason why this could not be done ? Does my reasoning make 
>sense ? Is the proposal acceptable to improve RDF specification? Does not 
>anyone experiment such an approach ?
>
>
>
>Best regards
>
>
>
>Stephane Fellah
>
>Web Chief Architect
>
>PCI Geomatics, Hull, QC
>
>
>
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------------
Graham Klyne
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Received on Saturday, 23 October 2004 16:07:53 UTC