LDPRs, LDPCs and the mysterious X

Let us start with the top of our hierarchy: LDPRs or ldp:Resource. 

   ldp:Resource a rdfs:Class;
      rdfs:label "LDPR";
      rdfs:comment """the class or resources whose behavior is 
                      defined in the LDP spec as LDPRs""" .

We can draw this set in Venn Diagram fashion as an oval. All
ldp:Resources we are to imagine are inside that Oval. Things
that are not inside that oval, are things like Cats, numbers
such as 42, wine, ...




We then have a different set of things called LDPC or
ldp:Container-s . These are all the things that can 
contain things.

  ldp:Container a rdfs:Class;
       rdfs:label "LDPC";
       rdfs:subClassOf ldp:Resource;
       rdfs:comment """
          The class of resources whose behavior is 
          defined in the LDP spec as LDPCs""".

It is a subclass of ldp:Resource and so that means
that any element that is an ldp:Container is an 
ldp:Resource. In our UML diagram they will therefore
be contained in the oval. I'll draw it as a circle 
here with light green content and place it inside
the oval that is ldp:Resource.




So now what remains? We have defined everything currently
inside the LDP spec. But from the above we can immediately
draw a consequence as to the existence of a third class of
things: those things that are NOT LDPCs. That's represented
by the space of things that are white in the diagram.

_:X a rdfs:Class;
    rdfs:subClassOf ldp:Resource;
    owl:intersectionOf ( [ owl:complementOf ldp:Container ] ldp:Resource ) .

So this unnamed _:X is a class that is a subclass of LDPR, but 
does not contain LDPCs. Clearly that must exist, or else there
would be no point in creating the class LDPC since it would
be identical to the LDPRs.

Also it follows that _:X cannot be a subclass of 
ldp:Container, since they have no members in common.

What can we call _:X ? My thought was that it is that
which is contained but which does not contain. In the
file system, we tend to call these "files". 

Now is it even useful to notice this? Does it have any
protocol implications? Well I think it does. For example
it explains why ISSUE-45 [1] can give those things a 
different operational behavior to ldp:Container-s
with regard to POST. It can do that because there is
no overlap between ldp:Container-s and _:X . 

for ldp:Containers a POST will create a new resource
and add a membership relation to the LDPC. On the other
hand for any _:X we can give a POST a different 
interpretation, such as that of APPENDing the triples
posted to.


[1] http://www.w3.org/2012/ldp/track/issues/45

Social Web Architect
http://bblfish.net/