Re: Comments on Linked Data Patch Format FWPD

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the review. Please find my comments in line.

On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 5:17 AM, Tim Berners-Lee <timbl@w3.org> wrote:
> Arnaud et al
>
> Here some immediate technical comments on
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/WD-ldpatch-20140918/
>
> 1) " then the server must not apply any of the changes."  What HTTP error code is then returned?  You must spec the little network protocol bits here I think. Or is that in LDP already?

It may not always be clear in this FPWD but the semantics of the
request at the HTTP level is already defined in RFC 5789. That phrase
was actually copied from there.

Error handling is defined at http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5789#section-2.2 .

I agree that the connection must be made more explicit. We could
provide a section with examples of HTTP PATCH interactions, including
failing ones.

>
> 2) - Why do some production names are in bold in the concrete syntax and some not?

No idea. We will fix that.

>
> 3) Step ::= '/' ( '^' iri | iri | INDEX )         eh?    Do you mean  Step ::=   (  '/'  '^'?    iri )   iri   |   INDEX

A Step is when you move your pointer. A Step is introduced with '/'.

Then you find the 3 possibilities: StepBackward, StepForward, and
StepAt. These options are informally introduced in [1].

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/WD-ldpatch-20140918/#path-expression

>
> 4) "The Bind operation is used to create a new variable by binding or assigning an RDF Term to the variable."
> Do you mean one or many?  Happy with either, both have their uses. I thought I saw many allowed somewhere in the document.
> Probably veer toward many, for consistency with SPARQL.  You have a unicity operator for

Only one. This will be very clear in the formal semantics (coming
soon) but could be made more explicit in the informative section.

If you see LD Patch as a diff (you should), a variable being a set of
nodes (1 node or more, not 0) changes the semantics quite a lot.

>
> 5)   Add s  p o  vs.   insert { ... }   I  prefer the latter I must say
>  --- why be arbitrarily different from SPARQL, turtle, etc?

Actually, it is arbitrary similar to RDF Patch [2] :-) Pierre-Antoine
did mention where he was coming from in his proposal.

As for supporting both "Add" and "A", this is actually from... you!
Andrei and I were showing you Pierre-Antoine's solution after the last
F2F in Boston, and you suggested that you would prefer to see the
entire word if possible :-)

[2] http://afs.github.io/rdf-patch/#further-rdf-patch-examples

>  --- I already have a { stuff } parser as do many people
> --- it is a pain to have to write a separate line for each
> -- I'd like to use [] for bnodes in the insert bit.

That would not change the semantics, but it would make the syntax a
superset of Turtle. So more work if one is starting with the grammar
from scratch.

I am personally not against that, but you have to understand that this
a departure from the original design: LD Patch started as being syntax
compatible with RDF Patch, and added just what was needed for the LDP
use-case (bnode and rdf:list support).

Feel free to insist on that, and I am asking others to voice their
opinion as well. I would prefer this change to be formally approved by
the group. But I don't see good reasons for not doing it.

> 6)  The '!' constraint: with the uniqueness constraint,  if the test fails, is that an error and the whole thing is aborted, or that brach of the query is silently abandoned? "Is it select all those people with one home." or "select all people. Assert a person only has one home".   Or is it "Just pick any one and proceed".

Another example of something that can be improved in the informative
section, and that will be super explicit in the formal semantics.

The editors all agreed that silent failure would always be avoided in
LD Patch. If something doesn't match, then it's an error.

So in the case of a failing '!' constraint, it is seen as a runtime
error, so per RFC 5789 the whole query fails.

>
> 7) Maybe :: or some thing as a index operator, not just a space.   The conventional [] are overused already, of course.

Can you please clarify? I am not sure to understand what you mean.
Maybe an example?

Cheers,

Alexandre

>
> My 2ยข worth anyway
>
> Tim
>
> Developer hat on
> Director hat off
>
>
>
>

Received on Friday, 26 September 2014 14:32:18 UTC