Re: SHACL syntax and metamodel complexity

Some people believe that outlawing "useless" constructs or constructs that
might be a mistake is a good idea.  I disagree.  However, SHACL does a bad
job at outlawing "useless" constructs.

1/ ex:s1 a sh:Shape ;
     sh:property [ a sh:PropertyContraint ;
          sh:predicate ex:p1 ;
          sh:class ex:c1 ;
      sh:class ex:c2 ] .

2/ ex:s1 a sh:Shape ;
     sh:property [ a sh:PropertyContraint ;
          sh:predicate ex:p1 ;
          sh:class ex:c1 ] ;
     sh:property [ a sh:PropertyContraint ;
          sh:predicate ex:p1 ;
      sh:class ex:c2 ] .

3/ ex:s1 a sh:Shape ;
     sh:property [ a sh:PropertyContraint ;
          sh:predicate ex:p1 ;
          sh:minCount 1 ;
      sh:minCount 2 ] .

4/ ex:s1 a sh:Shape ;
     sh:property [ a sh:PropertyContraint ;
          sh:predicate ex:p1 ;
          sh:minCount 1 ] ;
     sh:property [ a sh:PropertyContraint ;
          sh:predicate ex:p1 ;
      sh:minCount 2 ] .

Illegal: 1 and 3
"Useless":  3 and 4

If "uselessness" is going to be a criterion for outlawing SHACL constructs
then it should be uniformly applied.

It is better to keep such constructs legal and leave it up to GUI and
lint-like tools to provide user guidance on potential mistakes.

peter

On 03/03/2016 05:57 PM, Irene Polikoff wrote:
> The only reason one would have multiple min and max counts is by mistake. To me, allowing this would be akin to encouraging errors and misunderstandings - thus, not a good idea. Prohibiting it, on the other hand, seems like a helpful thing and a good idea. 
> 
> Irene
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Mar 3, 2016, at 5:45 PM, Peter F. Patel-Schneider <pfpschneider@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 03/03/2016 01:42 PM, Arnaud Le Hors wrote:
>>> "Peter F. Patel-Schneider" <pfpschneider@gmail.com> wrote on 03/03/2016
>>> 12:14:55 PM:
>>>
>>>> From: "Peter F. Patel-Schneider" <pfpschneider@gmail.com>
>>>> To: kcoyle@kcoyle.net, public-data-shapes-wg@w3.org
>>>> Date: 03/03/2016 12:16 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: SHACL syntax and metamodel complexity
>>>>
>>>>> On 03/01/2016 09:20 PM, Karen Coyle wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 3/1/16 10:11 AM, Peter F. Patel-Schneider wrote:
>>>>>> in a simple extension of the current SHACL RDF syntax this would be
>>>>>>
>>>>>>      [ a sh:propertyConstraint ;
>>>>>>        sh:predicate ex:p ;
>>>>>>        sh:minCount 1 ;
>>>>>>        sh:class ex:c ;
>>>>>>        sh:maxCount 5 ;
>>>>>>        sh:class ex:d ;
>>>>>>        sh:minCount 3 ]
>>>>>
>>>>> Doesn't this require that there be order among the triples?
>>>> Otherwise, how do
>>>>> the two minCount's apply to the correct sh:Class triple?
>>>>>
>>>>> kc
>>>>
>>>> No.  This is not a qualified cardinality.  What this says is that
>>>> there is at least one value for ex:p, that all values for ex:p belong to ex:c,
>>>> that there are at most 5 values for ex:p, that all values for ex:p belong to
>>>> ex:d, and that there are at least three values for ex:p.
>>>
>>> Ok, but the two minCounts are confusing. The first one (sh:minCount 1) is
>>> essentially overridden by the second (sh:minCount 3), right? So, why did you
>>> choose to have them both? What's the significance?
>>> --
>>> Arnaud  Le Hors - Senior Technical Staff Member, Open Web Technologies - IBM
>>> Software Group
>>
>> Right now, the SHACL syntax does not allow multiple minCounts, or multiple
>> sh:class, or multiple anything.  Multiple minCounts are not useful.  Multiple
>> sh:class values are, however, and I view this as something that is going to be
>> a pain point.
>>
>> Why are multiple sh:class values not allowed?  Well, multiples are hard to
>> deal with if they are like the current design of qualified cardinality, where
>> there are two property values that need to be combined.  So to permit the
>> useful multiples one has to find a way to get around the combinations.
>>
>> The combinations are also problematic from a syntax viewpoint, as it may be
>> hard to see the combination.  Thus my proposal is to refactor these syntactic
>> constructs.  The result allows for repetition where useful and permits it even
>> when it is not (very) useful.  Will users ever have multiple minCounts (on
>> purpose)?  Probably not, but forbidding them doesn't seem like a good idea.
>>
>> peter
>>
>>

Received on Friday, 4 March 2016 15:48:39 UTC