Re: [JSON] RDF collections and JSON arrays

On Mar 25, 2011, at 11:58 , Steve Harris wrote:

[snip]

> 
>> Looking at this practically, most of our target market do not have the concept of multiple values, nor do they have support for multiple values in their stacks. They do however work with arrays and collections intensively.
>> 
>> I'd actually propose that we drop multiple value support and keep the [] notation for RDF collections.
>> 
>> To illustrate, if somebody has a property with multiple values for the label, they will typically write:
>> 
>> "labels": ["Foo", "Bar"],
>> 
>> Notice that's plural "labels" not singular "label", my way of language they are saying "this is a collection of labels", and that is the most common usage - indeed it's practically about the only option many developers have in their non-RDF tech stacks.
> 
> Sure, but I think that the variable cardinality is one of the most important features of RDF / graph stores in general.
> 

+1. I think it is more important to leave the possibility of variable cardinality because that seems to be a much more frequent usage. Dropping that in favour of collections is, I think, the wrong optimization...

Collections are rarely used though, where they are (eg, in encoding OWL) they are essential. I do not mind if their encoding is a bit esoteric (like the [[ ]]) syntax, that would not bother 80% or more of the users.

Ivan



>> This approach of only supporting RDF Collections (producing JS Arrays) makes sense to people. [[ ]] syntax and "multiple values" do not.
>> 
>> On the RDF side, surely we can create some properties if we need to? rdf:labels -> a collection of rdf:label relating to the subject.
> 
> I don't really see how that helps idiomatic usage myself, you still have a code difference for cardinality 1, v's > 1.
> 
> - Steve
> 
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> Steve Harris, CTO, Garlik Limited
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