Re: a few issues with daml+oil+concrete (XMLSchema Datatypes)

Sandro Hawke <sandro@w3.org>:
> > 3.  Using the property rdf:value to link from a point in the value
> >     space (eg 10) to a point in the lexical space (eg "10") seems
> >     completely backwards.   That's saying:
> >
> >           the number 10 has a value which is the string "10"
> >

Well, since 'value' has no formal meaning, we could interpret it in 
this context as meaning ' ... whose value can be determined by 
interpreting the string .... in the usual way'.

> >     when the correct form (IMHO) is
> >
> >           the number 10 has a lexical representation which is the
> >           string "10"
> >
> >     I know rdf:value is given in RDF M&S, but that doesn't make it
> >     right.  We need a property lexicalRepresentation (and probably
> >     canonicalLexicalRepresentation) to be clear here.  [...]

"Peter F. Patel-Schneider" <pfps@research.bell-labs.com>:

>Agreed.  I also think that this is the wrong way around.  However rdf:value
>is used for precisely this relationship in RDF M&S.  One other reason for
>using rdf:value is that it is shorter than rdf:lexicalRepresentation.

Right. God forbid that everyone should have to write 
'rdf:canonicalLexicalRepresentation=' every time they use a numeral. 
If a generic name for the inverse of 'value' is needed, let's call it 
'eulav' (pronounced you-lav). But since the same number might be 
written in binary, decimal, hexadecimal or octal; all of them, for 
various purposes, with a claim to be the canonical representation, 
why not use a terminology which indicates the encoding, say for 
example:  rdf:decnum   rdf:binnum  rdf:octnum   and so on? Notice 
that 'num' here means numeral, not number.

Pat Hayes

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Received on Friday, 16 February 2001 11:44:35 UTC