RE: what RDF is not (was ...)

Manos Batsis wrote,
> Peter F. Patel-Schneider wrote,
> > How many URIs are there?  Only countably infinite.   How many 
> > real numbers are there?  Uncountably infinite.  QED.
>
> Fair enough but although resources are a wonderfull consept as used 
> in RDF(S), I see no need to present a number as an 'abstract class', 
> that is, give each unique number a URI (sounds like a nightmare to 
> me).

Well, if you baulk at things as intangible as real numbers, how about 
points on a line, or spatial regions (eg., for a concrete example, 
geographical infomation bases)? There are far more of these than could 
possibly be represented by any finite collection of URIs.

This isn't necessarily a _practical_ problem, but it certainly
undercuts any suggestion that RDF(S) is capable of representing
"everything".

As Shakespeare might have said, there are more things in Heaven and
Earth than are dreamt of in RFC 2396 ;-)

Cheers,


Miles

-- 
Miles Sabin                                     InterX
Internet Systems Architect                      27 Great West Road
+44 (0)20 8817 4030                             Middx, TW8 9AS, UK
msabin@interx.com                               http://www.interx.com/

Received on Friday, 4 January 2002 09:12:39 UTC