Re: simplerdf & Towards the future RDF library

On 12 September 2015 at 22:44, Ruben Verborgh <ruben.verborgh@ugent.be>
wrote:

> HI Adrian,
>
> > I totally see where Ruben wants to go with LD Fragments but that's where
> > I start to have my issues. My current use cases are not really connected
> > to what Ruben does (LD Fragments perspective I mean)
>
> Just a quick remark here:
> what we're doing with Linked Data Fragments
> would very likely not have a place in any core RDF library.
>
> Quite the contrary, I see the Linked Data Fragments library
> as one of the primary users of such a core RDF library.
> It's now already a primary user of N3.js,
> but we need quite a bit more than that actually.
>
> > This brings me to another thing: It's great that some people on this
> > list can spend a lot of time bootstrapping important bits and pieces
> > payed as research. For me and Thomas (partially, he does a hell lot of
> > work in sparetime) this is not the case.
>
> I understand.
> Note that everything I do under https://github.com/RubenVerborgh
> is done in my spare time as well. This includes N3.js and SPARQL.js.
> I use these libraries heavily in my research, but they are my personal
> work.
>
> The LDF code, on the other hand, is made in research time.
> (Actually, most of it is still done on evenings and in weekends.)
>
> > I think what Ruben actually asks is do we really want to
> > have something like RDF Interfaces as a foundation.
>
> To clarify what I was exactly saying:
>
> 1) We need an RDF library for JS, like Java has Jena.
>
> 2) We need a team to develop such a library.
> The team should decide together about architecture.
>
> 3) RDF-Ext might be a good match,
> but they might or might not like a team deciding about their architecture
> (and I fully understand either way).
>
> 4) One of the core things we need to look at when developing a library
> is internal and external representations of triples.
> This will determine everything and we cannot easily cahnge.
>

Triples or quads?

Isnt this already quite well defined?  Or do you mean efficient memory
storage in JS for indexing etc.?


>
> 5) I gladly stop developing N3.js as a separate library
> and continue it as part of a bigger library developed by a team;
> but then I really want 4) solved first.
>
> > I personally don't think that RDF Interfaces is that important anymore.
>
> Glad to hear that.
> I'm not saying RDF Interfaces is bad;
> it would just be good to have it up for discussion.
>

RDF Interfaces and RDF Ext has been up for discussion for many years.  It's
not set in stone, but at the same time, not changed a lot.


>
> In particular, we should have something native to RDF and JavaScript.
> And Nicola's simplerdf really sparked my interest.
> Furthermore, we should benchmark decisions to be sure what we do.
>
> > So my point is if we really going to do some new thing we need to have a
> > clear understanding of what we aim to solve, agree on how we do that
> > work and companies like Zazuko/us need to have a benefit from this.
> > Otherwise investing time does not make sense.
>
> +1, and I would extend "companies like Zazuko/us"
> to "95% of people who want to build cool Linked Data apps in JavaScript".
>
> …I like where this is going :-)
>
> Best,
>
> Ruben
>