- From: pat hayes <phayes@ai.uwf.edu>
- Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 16:57:43 -0500
- To: Dan Connolly <connolly@w3.org>
- Cc: w3c-rdfcore-wg@w3.org
>pat hayes wrote: >[...] > > >But meanwhile, the 10 year history of the Web > > >is evidence that this axiom is useful; can we agree that > > >for the purposes of the RDF spec, every document is in the Web? > > > > No, we cannot. I refuse to accept as an axiom something that I know > > to be false and, moreover, I know to be false because I can make it > > false in a few seconds by writing something with a pen on a piece of > > paper. > >Again: *for the purposes of the RDF spec*. The thing >you write with a pen on a piece of paper is not in >scope of the RDF spec. Unless you happen to be scribbling >RDF on a piece of paper; but even then, if you regard >it as an RDF document, I'm asking that you agree >that it has a URI. > >The reason is that this is the way the XML specs work. >There are two coherent designs: > (a) an XML document's base URI is intrinsic > to that document. We speak of "the base URI > of a document." If you copy some <stuff/> from > one place in the Web to another, the result > is a different XML document. > > (b) an XML document may be paired with a base URI, > but that base URI isn't intrinsic to a document. > The same <stuff/> appearing at different addresses > in the Web is the very same XML document. > >The XML specs (XPath first, I believe, then Infoset, schema, >etc.) use design (a). Since the choice is arbitrary, >as far as I can tell, it would be silly for RDF to try >to use (b). Ah, now I see what you mean. Yes, I agree with (a) over (b), though I really don't like that way of putting it, ie "every document is on the web", as that suggests a much hairier metaphysical claim. I would rather say, RDF only talks about documents with a URI, or is restricted to documents with a URI. >[I'd rather not continue, in this forum, >the philosophical discussion >about which things have names and which things >can have names etc. Sorry I started it.] Fine with me. Sorry I misunderstood what you were saying. Pat --------------------------------------------------------------------- IHMC (850)434 8903 home 40 South Alcaniz St. (850)202 4416 office Pensacola, FL 32501 (850)202 4440 fax phayes@ai.uwf.edu http://www.coginst.uwf.edu/~phayes
Received on Monday, 25 June 2001 17:58:28 UTC