Re: Is promoting RDF+XML a lost cause? (a new primer ?)

Date sent:      	Fri, 26 Nov 2004 09:37:18 +0100
From:           	Giovanni Tummarello <giovanni@wup.it>
To:             	Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org>,  www-rdf-interest@w3.org
Subject:        	Re: Is promoting RDF+XML a lost cause? (a new primer ?)
Forwarded by:   	www-rdf-interest@w3.org
Date forwarded: 	Fri, 26 Nov 2004 08:42:29 +0000

> 
> Ivan Herman wrote:
> 
> > When I make courses on RDF and RDF/XML, I *always* use the graph
> > paradigm in the forefront. Ie, if there is a new concept (eg, some
> > OWL stuff), I always put up a graph *first* and that is what I use
> > to explain. Then, almost casually, I also show an excerpt of RDF/XML
> > saying 'if you want to serialize, this is the way it looks'. I have
> > received quite a lot of positive feedback from people that pushing
> > the graph, and its visual representation, worked well for them. Once
> > people grasp it than RDF/XML becomes just a serialization method.
> > Not pretty, there might be others coming up in the future, but it is
> > nothing else than syntactic sugar. (Well... sugar might not be the
> > best word here, maybe 'syntactic salt' is a better term?;-)
> >
> > Ivan
> 
> 
> Given this isnt it a good idea to consider rewriting the RDFprimer to
> get completely away of the XML ? implications might be far reaching.
> The less people get scared when facing that document the better.
> (Albeit is a fairly clear document and a great effort, maybe it could
> be called RDF/XML primer) Giovanni
> 
> 

I want to respond to what you are saying to each other, as I have 
been following this discussion with interest.

I am new to RDF, which I am taking to with enthusiasm as it is a 
provides a solution to a number of my problems with definitions 
associated with data.  I am interested in computer generated 
algebra, and became aware some time ago of content MathML as a 
means for encoding results.  I also want to attach to the algebra 
when the result was computed and what its meaning is, things 
which can be done with e.g. Dublin Core within RDF without me 
having to reinvent the wheel. So although I am using XML I am not 
yet committed to any particular XML tools.

Instead I have been planning to use E4Graph 
(http://e4graph.sourceforge.net/) to store my data, with output as 
XML as a means of exchange.  My concern has been to make sure 
that the RDF/XML output from my programs can be read into 
another program as good RDF/XML and that has lead me to 
propose to Jacob Levy (who develops E4Graph) a few small 
changes and options for E4Graph.  I have now done that.

So, please don't give up on RDF/XML, as it provides a means of 
exchange between computer programs for data which may be too 
complex for a human to want to read.

John Fletcher


-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr John P. Fletcher          Tel: (44) 121 204 3389 (direct line)
Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry (CEAC),
School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS),
Aston University,            Fax: (44) 121 359 4094
Aston Triangle,              Email: J.P.Fletcher@aston.ac.uk
BIRMINGHAM B4 7ET  U.K.      CEAC Web site 
http://www.ceac.aston.ac.uk/

Received on Friday, 26 November 2004 17:15:53 UTC