Re: datatypes and MT (#rdfms-graph)

At 08:05 PM 11/13/01 -0600, Pat Hayes wrote:
>>         terms:
>>                 constants (URIs w/fragids)
>>                 string literals
>>                 bnodes (existentially quantified variables)
>>         statement:
>>                 term term term.
>>         formula:
>>                 statement*

[...]

>Now, that last idea seems to me to basically break the graph syntax 
>proposal; there really isn't any point in having a graph syntax if we have 
>to include a labelling device to provide a lexical way of indicating 
>identity, rather than relying on the graph structure itself. We might as 
>well just give up on the F2F decision you cite above, and use Ntriples 
>(suitably relaxed, as you suggest) as the primary syntax.  Don't get me 
>wrong; I can live with that; I have no trouble with bound variables, and 
>the MT can handle existential properties. But there is considerable social 
>evidence that many people have a lot of trouble with it; and more to the 
>point, I really think that it amounts to a reversal of the decision about 
>making the graph primary. It certainly is a rejection, in effect, of the 
>*reasons* why that decision was made, viz. to get rid of bound variables 
>(local names, anonymous things that had names anyway, skolems, whatever 
>you want to call them) from the primary syntax. .

Dan,

would it break your mental model if the above N-triples-like syntax was 
modified to be:

         terms:
                 constant (URIs w/fragids)
                 string literals
                 bnodes (existentially quantified variables)
         statement:
                 term constant term.
         formula:
                 statement*

?

I think that can be used to specify graphs in the sense Pat is using them.

#g


------------------------------------------------------------
Graham Klyne                    MIMEsweeper Group
Strategic Research              <http://www.mimesweeper.com>
<Graham.Klyne@MIMEsweeper.com>
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Received on Wednesday, 14 November 2001 07:37:09 UTC