Re: Post-last-call comments on N-Triples notation

[I'm not sure why these went to w3c-rdfcore-wg
rather than to www-rdf-comments, but I presume it's
in order to discuss them here until I hear otherwise
from the chair.]

On Mon, 2003-06-30 at 15:16, Martin Duerst wrote:
> Dear RDF WG,
> 
> I'm writing this email to discharge two action items, one from
> the I18N WG and another from the MIT team meeting.
> Both of these action items relate to N-Triples.
> 
> 
>  From the I18N WG
> ----------------
> 
> [Compared with the other issues that are currently being discussed,
> this may be a detail]
> The I18N WG (Core TF) has looked at the escaping conventions
> for N-Triples at http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-testcases/#ntrip_strings.
> 
> We do not think it is a good idea to have more escaping than
> necessary.

It doesn't have more than necessary.

The amount of escaping it has was necessary in order to use
n-triples for its intended purpose of building a test suite;
in particular, in WG email, where various mail software conspires
to make US-ASCII the only thing we can rely on.


>  This only introduces additional uncertainties.
> It would be better if N-Triples used UTF-8 directly, therewith
> not testing any escaping conventions, but only the actual RDF
> statements and entailments.
> 
> 
>  From the MIT team meeting
> -------------------------
> 
> The question came up from a team member whether there was a
> difference between N-Triples and N3. It was pointed out that
> a quite probable way to read "N3" is as 'n-triple' (rather than
> as 'n-three'). It was suggested that choosing a different name
> than N-Triple would avoid (or would have avoided) such kinds
> of confusion.

I dunno what the cost of renaming n-triples would be.
I don't have a strong opinion.

> Personal comment: Both of the above comments seem to at least
>                    point to the need for a strong warning
>                    "Warning: N-Triples in not N3".
> 
> 
> Regards,    Martin.

-- 
Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/

Received on Monday, 30 June 2003 16:50:30 UTC