RE: DAML+OIL editors

Denny,

Notwithstanding the many comments already made by developers on this list,
the unfortunate truth is that there is no 'DAML+OIL editor' that will
currently do everything that we all would like: power, accuracy,
expressiveness, robustness, reliability, etc. I recently heard someone who
knows about such things say that if the project were to be mapped into an
equivalent phase in the history of procedural programming, then we are at
the stage of coding in assembly language. I'm afraid the only way to achieve
the full benefit of the expressive powers of DAML+OIL is to become
conversant with the DAML formal model and particularly the XML syntax
representation of it. It is then possible to build your model in a text
editor using the XML syntax, this is NOT as painful as it sounds: honestly!
The model can be validated and checked against any of the tools approved for
this purpose on the DAML site but I have found that the DAML validator is
very easy and efficient. The XML syntax can then be loaded into FaCT and
used for reasoning in the normal manner. There are a couple of 'enhanced
(XML) editors' that I could recommend but both still require you to know
what it is that you are doing; a colleague has used XMLSpy to code up the
XML representation but he is currently using the latest version of FORTE (v3
I think) which now supports XML as well as Java... and it's free. DAML+OIL
developed in this manner still needs to be validated in the same way as that
produced in the 'plain vanilla' text editor.

Sorry for the pessimistic tone,

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: www-rdf-logic-request@w3.org
[mailto:www-rdf-logic-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of Michael Denny
Sent: 23 October 2001 23:25
To: www-rdf-logic@w3.org
Subject: DAML+OIL editors


I am embarking on an ontology building mission and wish to comply as
thoroughly as possible with the latest DAML+OIL spec (because the consensus
seems to be that this is the leading contender for semantic web adoption).
While several editors like Protégé 2000 (with the OIL plugin), OilEd and
OntoEdit seem to be available with some maturity, I am floundering in trying
to gauge how complete their support of the spec really is.  Can anyone offer
an opinion as to which most fully exploits the DAML+OIL representation, or
where I might encounter deficiencies.  I understand that all these tools are
evolving quickly, and accept that any answer may be fleeting.  Thanks from a
newcomer to your list (the list's archive search doesn't seem to be
working).

I have posted this inquiry to both the www-rdf-logic@w3.org and
www-webont-wg@w3.org lists as I couldn't tell which was the appropriate
one -- my apologies if I'm in the wrong place.

Michael Denny

Received on Wednesday, 24 October 2001 10:14:03 UTC