Michael Kifer wrote: >>> Further, to dramatically improve readability of examples and test cases, >>> I'd suggest >>> >>> Const ::= LITERAL '^^' SYMSPACE | NUMERIC | ALPHANUMERIC >>> >>> where the last 2 options are sugar that allows one to omit any enclosing >>> "" or trailing ^^xsd:decimal or ^^rif:local. >>> >> I agree that we want to improve readability of examples. incidentally, >> I think it is much more convenient to abbreviate IRIs rather than local >> symbols, since local symbols will not be used very often (I think): the >> names of local symbols are not accessible outside the rule set. >> However, I'm not sure this BNF is the place. I think we can just say >> something like: >> >> For readability, in the examples throughout this document and in other >> documents we use the following abbreviations: >> * "ns#localname"^^rif:iri as compact URIs of the form prefix:localname >> * "numeric+(.numeric+)?"^^xsd:decimal as numbers numeric+(.numeric+)? >> > > I am reluctant to do this in the official RIF specification, because it is > supposed to illustrate how exactly things are supposed to be written in the > language. (Unofficial) tutorials and papers are a different matter. There > people can do whatever they want. > > The problem is the test cases. Aren't they "official"? And yet I would like them to be readable (and writable), and I don't think it is desirable to have each test case be in a different language, as Sandro suggests. Implementers would get a lot of valuable ideas about how to build their translators from reading the test cases, but only if they can read the test cases. -- Oracle <http://www.oracle.com> Gary Hallmark | Architect | +1.503.525.8043 Oracle Server Technologies 1211 SW 5th Avenue, Suite 800 Portland, OR 97204Received on Friday, 29 February 2008 19:04:40 UTC
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