Re: An RDF Reification Syntax Idea

FYI
The MKR language uses a scheme like the #-notation.
If I want to refer to a specific proposition, I give it a name

    name :: proposition

This approach can start you down a whole new way of thinking.
For example, see my discussion of Rand's axiomatic concepts
    http://mKRmKE.org/doc/RandMcCullough.html

Dick McCullough
knowledge := man do identify od existent done;
knowledge haspart proposition list;
http://mKRmKE.org/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Schneider" <m_schnei@gmx.de>
To: <adamsobieski@hotmail.com>
Cc: <semantic-web@w3.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 1:14 PM
Subject: RE: An RDF Reification Syntax Idea


> 
> Hi Adam!
> 
> Adam wrote:
>> It occurs that in all the things that can be resources, one that is
>> missing is a statement residing in another document.
>> 
>> I propose for consideration a syntax convention resembling:
>> 
>> "http://yourdomain.com/yourdocument.rdf!123" to indicate that the
>> resource I wish to discuss or describe is the 123rd triple in the
>> triples representation of the document at that address.
> 
> What you suggest here is to reference an RDF triple by its position 
> within its containing RDF-graph's /serialization/. An (abstract) RDF 
> graph is meant to be a /set/, and so its triples do not have any 
> specific order. The order within the document does not have any 
> RDF-related relevance: Every document consisting of a permutation of the 
> triples will be deserialized into exactly the same RDF graph.
> 
> So, your proposed URI format will loose its usage in the moment when the 
> document is deserialized into an RDF graph. That is different from an 
> URI in '#'-notation: A #-URI is (by convention) used to reference some 
> resource (or its description) within an RDF graph, independent from any 
> concrete serialization syntax: After deserializing some, say, RDF/XML 
> document, it is still perfectly clear, what resource is referenced by 
> such a #-URI.
> 
> But even if you are really interested in referencing the triples within 
> a concrete RDF document, you often cannot count on the order of its 
> content. Say, you have the following document URL:
> 
>   http://www.example.org/foo.rdf
> 
> But, perhaps, this document does not really exist as a static file at 
> server side. Instead, the (semantic) web server might generate it 
> dynamically in the moment when it is accessed, by assembling its content 
> from information within some database. You cannot expect the database 
> owner to store additional ordering information within its database, 
> because such an ordering is, as I pointed out above, of no relevance 
> from an RDF point of view. And you also cannot expect the applied 
> assembly algorithm to behave deterministically, so it is not warranted 
> that it will always produce exactly the same document.
> 
> Best regards,
> Michael
> 
> 
>

Received on Thursday, 1 February 2007 06:44:41 UTC