- From: Brian McBride <bwm@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
- Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 11:16:37 +0000
- To: Jan Grant <Jan.Grant@bristol.ac.uk>, RDFCore Working Group <w3c-rdfcore-wg@w3.org>
Jan, In the light of your comments, I propose the following changes to the last call candidate: strike: [[As such, RDF data can resemble an entity-relationship diagram.]] strike: [[ Note that if a class were the same thing as the set of its instances then common (Zermelo-Fraenkel) set theory would prevent it being an instance of itself.]] replace: http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/RDFCore/TR/WD-rdf-schema-20030117/#ch_range [[states that P is an instance of the class rdf:Property, that C is an instance of the class rdfs:Class and that the objects of triples whose predicate is P are instances of the class C.]] with [[states that P is an instance of the class rdf:Property, that C is an instance of the class rdfs:Class and that the resources denoted by objects of triples whose predicate is P are instances of the class C.]] replace http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/RDFCore/TR/WD-rdf-schema-20030117/#ch_domain [[states that P is an instance of the class rdf:Property, that C is a instance of the class rdfs:Class and that the subjects of triples whose predicate is P are instances of the class C.]] with [[states that P is an instance of the class rdf:Property, that C is a instance of the class rdfs:Class and that the resources denoted by subjects of triples whose predicate is P are instances of the class C.]] replace http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/RDFCore/TR/WD-rdf-schema-20030117/#ch_subclassof [[...is used to state that one class is a specialization of another.]] with [[ ... is used to state that all the instances of one class are instances of another.]] replace http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/RDFCore/TR/WD-rdf-schema-20030117/#ch_subpropertyof [[The property rdfs:subPropertyOf is an instance of rdf:Property that is used to specify that one property is a specialization of another.]] with [[The property rdfs:subPropertyOf is an instance of rdf:Property that is used to specify that all resources related by one property are also related by another.]] Brian At 12:03 14/01/2003 +0000, Jan Grant wrote: >Typos, trivial stuff, one issue (which is raised here because you've >carefully not said much about seeAlso &co., so not necessarily a schema >problem) > > >1. Introduction > >"As such, RDF data can resemble an entity-relationship diagram." > >An instance diagram, maybe, but I think this sentence is empty and can >be struck. The traditional distinction between class and instance is >blurred by RDF. I tend to agree about striking that sentence. >2. Classes > >"Note that if a class were the same thing as the set of its instances >then common (Zermelo-Fraenkel) set theory would prevent it being an >instance of itself." > >This comes across more clearly in the MT; strike this sentence on the >grounds of being woolly. Again, I'm tempted to agree and would suggest it goes now. >"A class C is a subclass of a class C' if and only if all the instances >of C are also instances of C'." > >Again, this is what the MT says, but I still find it incongruous that >classes have an intensional semantics yet the primary relationship >between them is extensional. I'd prefer a purely intensional definition: > >"If a class C is a subclass of a class C', then all instances of C are >also instances of C'." See below. That is not what we have decided. >2.1 rdfs:Resource > >Formatting error. (no heading style?) Fixed >3.1 rdfs:range > >"The triple > > P rdfs:range C > >states that P is an instance of the class rdf:Property, that C is an >instance of the class rdfs:Class and that the objects of triples whose >predicate is P are instances of the class C." There is a use/mention error there. That should be "the objects of statements ..." since the object of a triple is a URI. I propose fix before last call. >All those things are true as a consequence of the semantics document >(since rdfs:range rdfs:domain rdfs:Property is an RDFS axiomatic triple) >but does this triple _state_ all those conclusions or does it _entail_ >them? because it only RDFS-entails these conclusions, not rdf-entails >them. Same comments (I think) apply to 3.2 and 3.3 (consider this >preemptive nitpicking) OK, I'll ignore it. >3.2, 3.3 Heading formatting error. fixed >3.4 rdf:subClassOf > >"...is used to state that one class is a specialization of another." > >No it isn't; it's used to state a subset relationship between their >class extensions. You've carefully pointed out the difference between >two intensionally distinct classes with the same extension in section 2. >Don't ignore it here. Using your example, consider the class of everyone >living in the UK as collected bythe tax office. Can you honestly say >that the post office's class of people at a particular "zip code" is a >speciali[sz]ation of that? Right. That should be fixed. >5.2 RDF Collections > >SEMANTICS doesn't require that the collections structures are >well-formed. Do you want to point that out here? What is your answer to >the question, "are RDF Collections required to be well-formed?" Not by RDFS, but I don't want to draw attention to it. >5.4.1 rdfs:seeAlso > >You carefully don't say much here, which is good. However, I think this >raises an issue which we should address (even if it's to punt) before or >as part of LC: > > If a resource is named by something that looks like a URI, > then what expectations can we have about that? If we (through > some process) dereference that URI, what can we expect to > see? Ie, is there any expectation (and if so, when) that > the use of a web address to name something means that we > can get a description of the named thing by dereferencing that > address? Or does the web address name the description > itself? We are going nowhere near that. Way outside our charter. >Consider this a last-call comment (to speed things along, ie get to LC) >but I think we're doing the semantic web a disservice by not addressing >this question - even if "addressing" the question involves punting to >TAG. One explicit approach would be to introduce an explicit set of >properties along these lines: > > <eg:something> <rdfx:URI> "eg:something-else"^^<xsd:uri> . > >Same comments apply to 5.4.2; although the wording is careful here too.
Received on Wednesday, 15 January 2003 06:15:20 UTC