Relaxing qnames in SPARQL queries to allow leading digits after the colon

qnames that I would like to have (because I deal with lots of numeric  
identifiers) for example:  pubmed:9822577

There are a lot of XML parsers out their, so fixing this for XML  
seems like a lost cause. However, I can't see any reason why SPARQL  
can't relax the rules.
There are no ambiguities that I can identify and hardly any installed  
base, so no backward compatibility issues.

In fact TURTLE already relaxes the rules compared to XML (just not  
enough), and SPARQL tightens them a little, so there is precedent for  
mucking around.

Just to be clear, I'm only concerned about SPARQL input, not what it  
generates if it can or at some time will be able to generate turtle.

I am aware that the issue has been raised before, at least by Jeremy  
Carroll, however I can't find any record of a technical reason why  
this isn't possible - rather the response is along the lines of "the  
WG must have thought about it since they thought of so many other  
things and they made a final decision knowing that there were  
limitations"

Would it be too much to ask for the actual technical reason why this  
is not possible? And if no such reason surfaces to reconsider the issue?

The limitation is quite annoying, but that would be tolerable if  
there was a good reason for it.

Thanks,

Alan

Received on Saturday, 21 April 2007 05:19:38 UTC