ISSUE-219: CR Comment: name "broader" confusing

ISSUE-219: CR Comment: name "broader" confusing

http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/track/issues/219

Raised by: Alistair Miles
On product: SKOS

Raised by Daniel Barclay in [1]:

"""
The term skos:broader should be named with something less ambiguous than the
single word "broader."

Using just that single word is ambiguous, because statement "A skos:broader B"
sounds like it means "A is broader than B" just as much (or more, in fact) than
it sounds like it means "A has broader term B."

Using just the single work seems extremely likely to be error-prone, as people
reading or writing SKOS data (and/or tools) to struggle to remember whether
skos:broader is defined to mean the former or to mean the latter.


The name should contain something that indicates the direction of the
relationship (the way "subclassOf" uses the word "of," or something like
"hasPart" uses the word "has).


Something like "hasBroaderTerm" would be clear, but presumably is wordier than
preferred.  If the sense were reversed, "broaderThan" would be shorter and
just as clear.
"""

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-swd-wg/2009Apr/0025.html

See also:

[ISSUE-82] http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/track/issues/82

Received on Friday, 8 May 2009 14:16:13 UTC