Naming issues

Several of the LC comments raise the issue of the inconsistent use of  
and/or distinction between "OWL2", "OWL2 DL" and OWL2 Full". For  
example, [28] points out that the Direct Semantics says: "This  
document provides the direct model-theoretic semantics for OWL 2",  
and "Since OWL 2 is an extension of OWL DL ...". Other comments  
alluding to this problem include [48].

Having talked to Ivan and others about this I would like to offer the  
following suggestion as a way to address the comments.

In Syntax:

1) Check the list near the beginning of Section 3 to ensure that it  
includes *all* conditions on ontologies that are mentioned elsewhere  
in the document, and change it to be a numbered list so that the  
various conditions can be more easily referred to.

2) Add some text explaining the effect of (not) satisfying various  
sub-sets of the restrictions. E.g., restrictions x, y and z are  
needed if the Direct Semantics is to be applicable. We can also state  
that ontologies not satisfying any of these restrictions can still be  
serialised as RDF and interpreted using the RDF-based Semantics.

3) Check the text in this and other documents for "inappropriate" use  
of "OWL2", changing to "OWL2 DL/Full" and/or adding references back  
to Semantics Section 3 as needed.

4) Carefully proof read the various documents to ensure there are no  
further ambiguities such as inconsistent use of the word "ontology",  
and if any are found, work on fixes.

Ian

[28] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-owl-comments/2009Jan/ 
0035.html
[48] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-swd-wg/2009Jan/0084.html

Received on Tuesday, 3 February 2009 10:12:43 UTC