Re: Thoughts on the LDS WG chartering discussion

On 6/10/21 8:04 AM, Ivan Herman wrote:

>
>> On 10 Jun 2021, at 13:55, Peter F. Patel-Schneider <pfpschneider@gmail.com 
>> <mailto:pfpschneider@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> How does "consistency" fit into this?  Every RDF graph (or datastore) is 
>> consistent.
>
> I am sorry, wrong choice of words. If you want to check that the graph you 
> retrieve from the data store has not been tampered with; e.g., by checking 
> its hash.
>
> An analogy is a number of open source sites where one can download an 
> application and check the hash value of the downloaded package against the 
> hash of the application announced somewhere.
>
> Ivan
>
It appears that the task here is for a sender to package up an RDF graph (or 
dataset) and send it to one or more receivers with the guarantee that the 
graph (or datatset) that the receivers produce is isomorphic to the original 
graph (or dataset).

The sender (open source site in your analogy) prepares a document that 
serializes this graph (or dataset).  This document is in some format where 
deserialization results in isomorphic graphs  (where execution of the code 
does the same thing on all computers).  The sender also provides a hash of the 
document.   Receivers download the document and the hash and check that the 
downloaded document matches the hash.   At some later date, receivers 
deserialize the document (run the code).

So no need for canonicalization.  No need for special processes to ensure that 
nothing bad has happened.  The only need is for a document format where 
deserialization of a document results in isomorphic graphs (or datasets).  
That rules out most document formats for RDF graphs (or datsets) leaving 
N-Triples (or N-Quads).


peter

Received on Thursday, 10 June 2021 12:53:19 UTC