- From: Peter F. Patel-Schneider <pfps@research.bell-labs.com>
- Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 14:53:52 -0500
- To: mmoran@netphysic.com
- Cc: www-rdf-interest@w3.org
From: Mike Moran <mmoran@netphysic.com> Subject: Re: RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised) W3C Working Draft published Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 19:36:58 +0000 > Peter F. Patel-Schneider wrote: > > [ ... ] > >>I don't wish to troll, but it would seem like inheriting of attributes > >>is a thing most people would expect to be able to do in RDF, somehow. > >> > > > > Why would one expect that? (And this is a serious question.) > > [ ... ] > > Simply for ease of representation. Why would one expect to be able to > inherit attributes in any type system? This is what RDF appears to be, > especially when there exists things such as rdf:subClassOf and the like. I don't know why one would expect this. I certainly don't expect to be able to inherit attributes in *any* type system. Some type systems allow certain kinds of inheritance, C++ for example, while others don't allow any kind of inheritance, ML for example. Only a very few type systems allow inheritance between values, which is what you seem to want. > I'm coming from a programming background, so I may have a skew on this, > but that is what RDF `looks like' to me. When I see "subClassOf", or > "type", various connotations and expectations arise such as the > inheritance of attributes. It is the case (or, actually, will be the case when the new RDF model theory becomes official) that Student rdfs:subClassOf Person . john rdf:type Student . implies john rdf:type Person . which is a kind of inheritance. However, there is no way to say in RDFS that the friends of Persons are Persons, so you can't inherit these sort of things between classes. > Before I go off on the wrong track again, could a potted > explanation be given of what type system RDF does have, and which > programming model is closest to it? Note that I'm fine if you say it > doesn't have one, just as long as I know. I think that this is where your problem lies. RDF is not a programming language. It does not have a programming model. It, however, is, finally, getting a badly-needed formal, unambiguous specification. [...] > -- > Mike peter
Received on Thursday, 20 December 2001 14:55:23 UTC