Turtle implementation report for RDF::Trine

I've posted EARL results for my turtle parser at:

http://kasei.us/code/rdf-trine/rdf-trine-turtle-2013-03-01.ttl

I'd like to take this opportunity to provide feedback on the inclusion of SPARQL BASE and PREFIX syntax in the new Turtle grammar. I think this is a mistake, adding complexity for both users and implementors. I'm sympathetic to the desire to align syntax for triples between Turtle and SPARQL, but don't believe the alignment is necessary or recommended for the top-level language syntax (as the need for backwards compatibility with pre-REC Turtle means that alignment requires two different syntaxes for the same declarations).

If the WG thinks that this alignment is absolutely necessary, I object to the needless complexity of having two different rules regarding trailing DOTs depending on the lexical form used. For example, as written the grammar requires a trailing DOT after "@base", but forbids it after "BASE". I can't think of a reason why having these different rules would be a benefit to anyone. One solution to this might be to allow an optional DOT after either form, but as I said, I think the best thing would be to keep just a single syntax for these declarations.

thanks,
gregory williams

Received on Friday, 1 March 2013 19:05:03 UTC