Re: A certain difficulty

> My suggestion is that you ASK THE USER before rewritting it or killing it.
[...]
> I'm starting the "Save the RDF" movement.

Things seem to have got a little alarmist! Nobody is talking about
rewriting or killing it. The concerns centre around how closely RDF is
associated with one particular RDF interchange syntax, namely the
XML-based format described alongside the RDF model in the Model and Syntax
Recommendation. RDFists have generally anticipated multiple syntaxes, or
(equivalently?) software architectures that extract RDF data structures
from a wide variety of concrete representations. Nobody is considering a
rewrite of the model, but there is widespread concern that the current
syntax is sub-optimal, and holding back progress with RDF
generally. That's all. RDF apps written today can be coded to distinguish
between model and syntax and therefore be futureproofed w.r.t. such
developments, but since there's currently only one widely understood
syntax for RDF people feel there's a gap that could be filled relatively
easily.

--dan

Received on Sunday, 27 February 2000 18:20:47 UTC