Re: action: choices for anonymous resources

Graham Klyne wrote:

> [Responding as a participant, not as part of my action to summarize...]
> 
> I broadly follow most of what you said.  One point of disagreement I 
> have is with this:
> 
> At 05:54 PM 7/17/01 -0400, you wrote:
> 
>> b.  these resources are "anonymous" only in the sense that the writer 
>> of the RDF doesn't have to explicitly supply a URI.  However, a 
>> genuine URI will be generated for the resource, and once generated 
>> this URI will behave like any other URI.  In this case, the M&S should 
>> say explicitly that URIs are generated for "anonymous" resources, the 
>> graph diagrams should show *generated* URIs, not *no* URIs, for these 
>> resources, and the M&S should say how these generated URIs work (e.g., 
>> when different parsers operate on the same XML serialization).
> 
> 
> You say "the graph diagrams should show *generated* URIs".  I don't 
> believe this is an inevitable conclusion.  My view is that the graph 
> diagrams are another presentation format on a par with the XML 
> serialization, and, as such, omitting the URIs is equally legitimate here.

I only agree with this up to a point.  It depends on what you're using 
the "presentation format" for.  To the extent that the presentation 
format is being used for *input*, I agree that the URIs should be 
omitted (since you're not inputting them).  That's the way I'm viewing 
most of the XML examples in the M&S.  If someone were to build a 
graphical input tool for RDF, where you could input the graphs directly, 
I'd also see omitting the URIs in those instances as well.  However, 
where you were using the presentation format to display output (what 
actually got produced), it seems to me you'd display generated URIs as 
well (as SirPac does).  I view the graphs in the M&S as being primarily 
visual aids, and as such I think it would be clearer to explicitly show 
generated URIs, as helping to convey the idea that that is what will 
happen.

> 
> However, I'll also note that this is a side issue.  The real issue would 
> seem to be the N-triple representation, and this approach suggests that 
> generated URIs would be needed in the N-triple representation.

Well, *some* identifier is needed in the N-triple representation, 
possibly generated URIs (this is one of the choices).

--Frank


-- 
Frank Manola                   The MITRE Corporation
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Received on Wednesday, 18 July 2001 07:31:20 UTC