- From: Elliotte Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>
- Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2006 06:37:53 -0500
- To: Pat Hayes <phayes@ihmc.us>
- CC: Dan Connolly <connolly@w3.org>, public-rdf-dawg-comments@w3.org
Pat Hayes wrote: >> On Sun, 2006-03-05 at 18:56 -0500, Elliotte Harold wrote: >>> If there's a justification for using both $ and ? to represent >>> variables, I haven't found it yet. >> >> The WG made that choice in the course of resolving the >> punctuationSyntax issue. >> http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/DataAccess/issues#punctuationSyntax I may not be following the right link, but I don't see the connection. Is there a reference in the archives other than the below? >> A number of design considerations were laid out in: >> Draft: open issues around '?' use. >> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-rdf-dawg/2004OctDec/0160 I think this makes some good arguments for using a $ instead of a ?. However it doesn't convince me that using both is a good idea. Why are two characters considered necessary here? Why not just pick the $ and be done with it? > Just a quick clarification: it does not reserve two characters, which is > one of its strengths. If you have a variable name beginning with '?', > then prefix it with '$', and vice versa. XML uses a similar trick with > the single and double quote option, which allows quoted strings > containing either single or double quote characters (but not both). I tend to think of the distinction between ' and " as one bit of syntax sugar XML could do without. Historically, it was probably necessary because HTML already allowed it. However, it certainly made the proverbial DPH's job harder. -- Elliotte Rusty Harold elharo@metalab.unc.edu XML in a Nutshell 3rd Edition Just Published! http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xian3/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596007647/cafeaulaitA/ref=nosim
Received on Monday, 6 March 2006 11:37:59 UTC