- From: Dan Connolly <connolly@w3.org>
- Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2001 12:36:56 -0500
- To: pat hayes <phayes@ai.uwf.edu>
- CC: Ziv Hellman <ziv@unicorn.com>, www-rdf-logic@w3.org
pat hayes wrote: > somebody wrote: > Could you elucidate the distinction between definitions and assertions, and explain how this differs from ground-fact/rule? > > Ah, now I have painted myself into a corner, since I never fully understood the definition/assertion distinction myself, though it seemed central to many folk (and still does). Although to be fair, the idea of a definition is a pretty common one in mathematics and life generally, in spite of its having no obvious logical content. There's an interesting formalization/implementation of it in the larch toolset: in larch, you can say that some operator in a trait is completely defined in terms of other operators in the trait. In the syntax, you say converts sugar ala "this trait converts the operator 'sugar' to other terms". The tools generate proof obligations to prove that if sugar were renamed, it wouldn't make any difference. For technical details, see http://www.w3.org/XML/9711theory/#about-larch esp 2.12 How and when should I use a converts clause? http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~leavens/larch-faq.html#SEC28 -- Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/
Received on Thursday, 7 June 2001 13:37:07 UTC