Re: Strawman RDFCore Documents structure

I agree with Frank's comments.

#g
--

At 01:00 PM 8/14/01 -0400, Frank Manola wrote:
>I think this represents a reasonable starting point for structuring the
>material, provided we don't take the descriptions too literally.  That
>is, I think we can use this as defining rough targets for the different
>types of material we need to produce, and in the case of the Overview a
>rough length target, so we can think about actually writing.  However, I
>don't know that I'd want to spend a whole lot of time discussing much
>greater detail about the documents, because I often find that when I
>actually start to see the material my ideas about how much is needed,
>and how to organize it, change.
>
>A couple of additional comments:
>
>1.  I suspect many of the page estimates are too low.
>
>2.  I'm suspicious of *too much* separation of explanatory material
>("Tutorial") from the specification of the RDF model and RDF Schema.
>This is one place where I'd want to actually be looking at some
>material, in order to decide whether the specification was actually
>going to get across to people or not.  While I appreciate the desire to
>avoid mixing normative and non-normative material (as well as the desire
>to avoid confusing people with too many detailed examples), nevertheless
>we need to shoot for specifications that our target audience can
>actually read and understand.  (For example, a potential "explanatory"
>section of the specifications that might be very useful, based on the
>history of our WG discussions, would be a section whose title was
>something like "virtual specifications: things you may be reading into
>the specifications, but that aren't actually there.")  Also, I wouldn't
>think that having a "tutorial" would necessarily rule out having
>explanatory material in the specifications themselves;  I generally
>think of a "tutorial" as having a different approach than a
>"specification", even when the "specification" contains a lot of
>explanatory material. Perhaps a thorough cross-referencing scheme
>between the two "kinds" of documents would alleviate many of the
>potential difficulties.
>
>--Frank
>
>Brian McBride wrote:
> >
> > I had an action from the face to face to propose a structure for the 
> documents
> > the WG is to produce.  Below is a strawman for discussion.
> >
>snip
> >
> > Documents
> > =========
> >
> > Overview
> > --------
> >
> > Purpose:  High level introduction to RDF and guide to other documents.
> >           All that a manager needs to read to understand broadly what
> >           RDF is trying to do without getting into how it does it.
> >           Answers questions like "What is RDF?", "What would my
> >           organisation use it for?", "Where does it fit into the
> >           family of XML, metadata and semantic web specifications?",
> >           "What do I read next?" and "What is defined and how can
> >            it be extended?".
> >
> > Audience: Everyone with any interest in RDF.  This is the  first document
> >           a newbie reads.  It's the only document someone needing only
> >           a high level view of what RDF is and what its for should need
> >           to read.
> >
> > Size:     2-3 printed pages
> >
> > Status:   Non-normative
> >
> > Style:    Short, concise, readable.
> >
> > Tutorial
> > --------
> >
> > Purpose:  A tutorial introduction and explanation of the RDF 
> specifications.
> >
> > Audience: The primary target audience for this document is the book author.
> >           The main goal of this document is to make the specifications
> >           accessible to the book writing community, so that they can fill
> >           in the gaps and write complete tutorials in their books.
> >
> >           This document will also be used by those who eschew the books and
> >           and want to figure stuff out for themselves from the
> >           specifications.
> >
> > Coverage: Sections covering all aspects of the RDF specs including the
> >           abstract model, the RDF/XML syntax, RDF Schema and basic
> >           vocabularies such as reification and containers.
> >
> > size:     approx 20-30 printed pages
> >
> > style:    explanatory
> >
> > status:   non-normative
> >
> > RDF Model
> > ---------
> >
> > purpose:  Formal specification of the RDF abstract model.
> >
> > audience: Higher layer designers, tool builders, authors
> >
> > coverage: Graph model, n-triple representation, model theory,
> >           n-triple formal grammar as non-normative appendix
> >
> > size:     < 10 printed pages
> >
> > style:    Formal
> >
> > status:   normative
> >
> > RDF Schema
> > ----------
> >
> > purpose:  Formal specification of RDF Schema
> >
> > audience: Higher layer designers, tool builders, authors
> >
> > coverage: type, Class, etc and their model theory
> >           Vocabularies - reification and containers and their model theory
> >           XML Schema data types
> >           links to test cases
> >
> > size:     < 20 pages
> >
> > style:    formal spec, no explanatory material
> >
> > status:   normative
> >
> > RDF/XML Syntax
> > --------------
> >
> > purpose:  Formal specification of the RDF/XML grammar and its
> >           transformation to a graph.
> >
> > audience: Higher layer designers, tool builders and authors
> >
> > coverage: relationship to XML, grammar, transform to graph,
> >           links to test cases
> >
> > size:     < 10 pages
> >
> > style:    formal spec, no explanatory material
> >
> > status:   normative
> >
> > Test Cases
> > ----------
> >
> > purpose:  Machine executable illustrative test cases which illustrate
> >           various aspects of the specifiations.  Not exhaustive.  Not
> >           a validation test suite.  Explanatory examples.
> >
> > audience: All except managers
> >
> > coverage: everything
> >
> > size:     ?
> >
> > style:    machine executable with comments
> >
> > status:   normative  (@@??)
>
>--
>Frank Manola                   The MITRE Corporation
>202 Burlington Road, MS A345   Bedford, MA 01730-1420
>mailto:fmanola@mitre.org       voice: 781-271-8147   FAX: 781-271-8752

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Strategic Research              Content Security Group
<Graham.Klyne@Baltimore.com>    <http://www.mimesweeper.com>
                                 <http://www.baltimore.com>
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Received on Friday, 31 August 2001 11:58:00 UTC