Re: basic decisions underlying DAML-ONT (defined classes)

"Peter F. Patel-Schneider" wrote:
> 
> I think that it would be very useful to get some sort of information on the
> basic decisions underlying DAML-ONT.

I have no idea how to approach that request, in general,
but I can certainly answer the specific question:

>  For example, I would like to know
> whether there is a basic decision in DAML-ONT to not allow necessary and
> sufficient conditions for classes.

No... I/we just punted for lack of inspiration.

I tried, for maybe 10 minutes, to design such an idiom,
and then gave up, since all the designs that occured
to me involved ugly reification/quoting idioms. And this
was before I had decided to go beyond RDF 1.0 with a simplified
list/collection syntax.

I should have noted it explicitly as a TODO.

I'll try to cook up a design shortly.

If you beat me to it, so much the better!


> The reason that I ask this is that DAML-ONT does not have a direct
> mechanism to allow such ``defined'' classes.  However, in many cases, one
> can indeed create classes that contain exactly those individuals that meet
> a particular condition.
[...]


-- 
Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/

Received on Thursday, 12 October 2000 10:03:02 UTC