Re: Lack of a standard rules language Re: Toward easier RDF: a proposal

Dear Dörthe,

Thanks for the initiative.
I'll support it.

Kind regards,
Hans

Hans Cools, M.D.
Knowledge Engineer, Software Entwickler
Nationale Infrastruktur für Editionen - Infrastructure nationale pour 
les éditions (NIE - INE)
Universitätsbibliothek Basel
Schönbeinstrasse 18-20
CH-4056 Basel, Schweiz
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Tel: +41 (0)61 207 57 08

Am 22.11.2018 15:34, schrieb Doerthe Arndt:
> Dear all,
> 
> reading the below:
> 
>> 8. Lack of a standard rules language.  This is a big one.
>> Inference is fundamental to the value proposition of RDF,
>> and almost every application needs to perform some kind
>> of application-specific inference.  ("Inference" is used
>> broadly herein to mean any rule or procedure that produces new
>> assertions from existing assertions -- not just conventional
>> inference engines or rules languages.)  But paradoxically,
>> we still do not have a *standard* RDF rules language.
>> (See also Sean Palmer's apt observations about N3 rules.[14]) We
>> want to move forward the standardisation of N3 since I think that it
>> is really worth it:
> 
> I think this is a good opportunity to get back to N3 Logic. We have
> worked with N3 for years now and there are several reasons why I
> believe that it should be standardized:
> 
>  * Syntax:
> 
> For someone knowing turtle, writing N3 rules is easy since N3
> seamlessly extends the rdf's turtle syntax without having to fall back
> on debatable constructs like reification.
> Example:
> For a triple :s :p :o. a rule  {?x :p :o} => {?x :pp :oo}. would lead
> to :s :pp :oo.
> 
> For reification, N3 also provides a solution in general which is very
> close to the recent proposal of RDF* and could be aligned with it.
> Example: :s :says {:s :p :o}.
> 
>  * Practice:
> 
> There are already existing reasoners for N3 Logic Like Cwm
> (https://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/doc/cwm.html) and EYE
> (http://eulersharp.sourceforge.net/). The latter developed in industry
> which can make us at least confident that N3 is able to cover "real"
> use cases.
> 
> We used N3 in many practical use cases and had positive experiences
> (for example
> https://de.slideshare.net/ruleml2012/ruleml-2015-ontology-reasoning-using-rules-in-an-ehealth-context
> and https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8540876).
> 
> We already did some first steps towards the standardization by
> defining a model theory and identifying current problems:
> 
>  * A recent talk about this topic at the RuleML Webinar
> (https://wiki.ruleml.org/index.php/RuleML_Webinar) can be accessed
> here:
> https://github.com/RuleML/ruleml-website/blob/master/talks/DoertheArndt-SemN3Impl2ExplQuant-RuleMLWebinar-2018-09-28.pdf
> 
> 
>  * Earlier work was presented at RuleML 2015 (Slides:
> https://de.slideshare.net/ruleml2012/ruleml-2015-semantics-of-notation3-logic-a-solution-for-implicit-quantification,
> Paper: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-21542-6_9)
> 
>  * We furthermore hope to soon publish a journal paper about this
> topic which is currently under review.
> 
> CALL TO ACTION: who would support and/or join a W3C community group
> around an N3 rule language?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Doerthe
> 
> P.S.: To also get back to the rest of the ongoing discussion: N3
> supports blank nodes and literals in all positions and treats lists as
> "first class citizens" (in practice that means that there are no blank
> nodes involved when expressing lists).
> 
> --
> Dörthe Arndt
> Researcher Semantic Web
> imec - Ghent University - IDLab | Faculty of Engineering and
> Architecture | Department of Electronics and Information Systems
> Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 19, 9052 Ghent, Belgium
> t: +32 9 331 49 59 | e: doerthe.arndt@ugent.be

Received on Monday, 17 December 2018 13:40:31 UTC