RE: Proposed response to Golbeck regarding imports issue

At 11:13 AM -0500 6/13/03, Smith, Michael K wrote:
>I have merged Jeff's suggestion with Ian's and propose that in the
>Guide, section 2.2, I replace the current text (see below) with the
>following:
>
>[[[
>An owl:imports statement references another OWL ontology.  The URI
>that is the value of the rdf:resource attribute identifies the
>ontology to be imported. The current ontology is extended with the
>contents of the referenced ontology. Importing an ontology, O2, will
>also import all of the ontologies that O2 imports.
>
>Thus, if ontology A imports ontology B, the meaning of terms in A
>are exactly the same as they would be if all of the statements in B
>(including further imports statements) were included in A.
>
>It is often convenient to coordinate owl:imports with a namespace
>declaration, so that qualified names can be used when referring to the
>resources of the ontology. Notice the distinction between these two
>mechanisms. The namespace declarations provide a convenient means to
>reference names defined in other OWL ontologies, while owl:imports
>indicates an intention to include the assertions of the target
>ontology.
>]]]
>
>Current text
>
>[[[
>owl:imports provides an include-style mechanism. owl:imports takes a
>single argument, identified by the rdf:resource attribute.
>
>Importing another ontology brings the entire set of assertions
>provided by that ontology into the current ontology. In order to make
>best use of this imported ontology it would normally be coordinated
>with a namespace declaration. Notice the distinction between these two
>mechanisms. The namespace declarations provide a convenient means to
>reference names defined in other OWL ontologies. Conceptually,
>owl:imports is provided to indicate your intention to include the
>assertions of the target ontology. Importing another ontology, O2,
>will also import all of the ontologies that O2 imports.
>]]]

That works for me.  Jeff, don't forget that you have to send a 
response to Jen, and none has been approved yet
  -JH


-----Original Message-----
>From: Jeff Heflin [mailto:heflin@cse.lehigh.edu]
>Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 10:51 AM
>To: Ian Horrocks
>Cc: WebOnt
>Subject: Re: Proposed response to Golbeck regarding imports issue
>
>
>
>I actually like a variation of the wording used in Reference. How about
>if we change the wording in Guide, section 2.2
>
>from:
>
>"owl:imports provides an include-style mechanism. owl:imports takes a
>single argument, identified by the rdf:resource attribute.
>
>Importing another ontology brings the entire set of assertions provided
>by that ontology into the current ontology. In order to make best use of
>this imported ontology it would normally be coordinated with a namespace
>declaration. Notice the distinction between these two mechanisms. The
>namespace declarations provide a convenient means to reference names
>defined in other OWL ontologies. Conceptually, owl:imports is provided
>to indicate your intention to include the assertions of the target
>ontology. Importing another ontology, O2, will also import all of the
>ontologies that O2 imports."
>
>to:
>
>"An owl:imports statement references another OWL ontology, the meaning
>of which is included in the meaning of the importing ontology. The value
>of the rdf:resource attribute is a URI that identifies the ontology that
>is to be imported.  Importing another ontology, O2, will also import all
>of the ontologies that O2 imports.
>
>It is often convenient to coordinate owl:imports with a namespace
>declaration, so that qualified names can be used when referring to the
>resources of the ontology. Notice the distinction between these two
>mechanisms. The namespace declarations provide a convenient means to
>reference names defined in other OWL ontologies, while owl:imports
>indicates your intention to include the assertions of the target
>ontology."
>
>Note: This also includes other chages proposed in an earlier message,
>which are shown for context, and some reordering to better separate
>different ideas.
>
>Jeff
>
>Ian Horrocks wrote:
>>
>>  [snip]
>>
>>  > >"If an ontology imports another ontology then it virtually includes the
>>  > >meaning of the imported ontology."
>>
>>  Couldn't we say something like "If ontology A imports ontology B, then
>>  the semantics (meanings if you prefer) of terms in A are exactly the
>>  same as they would be if all of the statements in B (including further
>>  imports statements) were included in A".
>>
>>  Ian

-- 
Professor James Hendler				  hendler@cs.umd.edu
Director, Semantic Web and Agent Technologies	  301-405-2696
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Received on Friday, 13 June 2003 17:37:30 UTC