rdf for object serialization

Hello,

I would like to use RDF for object serialization if possible. My problem 
is that I am not sure how to express the following Java classes in 
RDF schema (using a single namespace)?

class Person {
  String name;
  Person child;
}

class Node {
  Object content;
  Node child;
}

Where serialzed instances should look like

<rdf xmlns:rdf="..."
     xmlns="..."

  <Person rdf:about="....">
     <name>Harry Hacker</name>
     <child rdf:"ressurce="...."/>
  </Person>

  <Node rdf:about="....">
     <content rdf:ressource="..."/>
     <child rdf:ressource="..."/>
  </Node>
</rdf>


AFAIK, that is not possible at all because in RDF the domain 
of a property is not part of the property 
name (in contrast to OOPL).

So I could add the class name to the property name manually,
but renaming child to Person-child and Node-child would 
look ugly in the RDF code and not meet the spirit of
OOP. I could also use the RDF syntax for object 
serialization but ignore RDF schema. 

Does anybody have a good suggestions?

Is there any special reason why the domain name is not part
of the property name in RDF schema like in standard OOP?
Or did I misread the specs? Is object serialization a
relevant application of RDF? 

Best regards

Stefan


-- 
Stefan Haustein
University of Dortmund
Computer Science VIII
www-ai.cs.uni-dortmund.de

Received on Tuesday, 29 February 2000 07:59:03 UTC