Re: Alternative RDF/XML serializations

Re: Alternative RDF/XML serializationsI have checked out N3, and I like it a lot better than XML.
Of course, I like MKR ( http://rhm.cdepot.net/ ) better than N3.

Dick McCullough
knowledge := man do identify od existent done;
knowledge haspart proposition list;

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jim Hendler 
  To: Richard H. McCullough ; jimbobbs@hotmail.com 
  Cc: 'www-rdf-logic at W3C' 
  Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 9:02 AM
  Subject: Re: Alternative RDF/XML serializations


  At 8:37 AM -0700 6/10/03, Richard H. McCullough wrote:
  >Thanks for clarifying these issues.
  >Looking at your "XML serialization", I have no desire to use it.
  >To me, it is not "easy reading and writing by humans".




  Sure, but if you want that, you need to use something other than any XML syntax.  Might I suggest you check out N3 --  http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/Primer -- or other human readable presentation formats (I think there is a relax version of RDF somewhere, but I don't have the pointer)
   -JH



  >
  >Dick McCullough
  >knowledge := man do identify od existent done;
  >knowledge haspart proposition list;
  >
  >----- Original Message -----
  >From: "Jimmy Cerra" <jimbobbs@hotmail.com>
  >To: "'Richard H. McCullough'" <rhm@cdepot.net>
  >Cc: "'www-rdf-logic at W3C'" <www-rdf-logic@w3.org>
  >Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 7:33 PM
  >Subject: RE: Alternative RDF/XML serializations
  >
  >
  >> > 1. The inside of <MKR ...> ... </MKR> would be parsed by MKE or
  >> > some equivalent parser.  The parsing is easy -- MKR's basic structure
  >> > is comma-separated lists between keywords or punctuation marks.
  >>
  >> Perhaps that could be parsed with XSLT's string parsing functions (and,
  >> I think, with XSLT 2.0's RE functions too).  However, I consider the MKR
  >> data structure as RDF serialized into a (tokenized) string, not an XML
  >> serialization (although it is also a tokenized string).
  >>
  >> > 2. What would qualify the inside as an XML serialization?
  >>
  >> That is technically a serialization in XML; however, the graph is not
  >> encoded in a XML-formatted data structure (only the MKR element
  >> signifies it as a graph).  Subjects, predicates, and objects are not
  >> identified by elements or attributes for instance.
  >>
  >> Thus, I would encode your example as something like:
  >>
  >> <MKR
  >>   xmlns    ="http://rhm.cdepot.net/xml/MODIFIED"
  >>   xmlns:ex ="http://www.example.com/terms/"
  >>   xmlns:dc ="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
  >> >
  >>   <resource>
  >>     <name>Dave Beckett</name>
  >>     <ex:homepage ref="http://purl.org/net/dajobe" />
  >>   </resource>
  >>   <resource>
  >>     <name>document</name>
  >>     <dc:title ref="RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised)" />
  >>     <ex:editor>Dave Beckett</ex:editor>
  >>     <ex:uri ref="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-syntax-grammar" />
  >>   </resource>
  >> </MKR>
  >>
  >> Note that is just a hypothetical example.  That allows one to use XPaths
  >> like:
  >>
  >> 1. "/MKR/resource/name/text()" to identify subjects,
  >> 2.
  >> "/MKR/resource/*[namespace-uri()!='http://rhm.cdepot.net/xml/MODIFIED']"
  >>    to identify predicate element-nodes (not RDF 'nodes', but XML
  >> 'nodes').
  >> 3. "@ref" (in above context) to identify predicate URIes.
  >> 4. "./text()" (in above context) to identify predicate literals.
  >>
  >> You can use those (in XSLT stylesheets) rather than using regular
  >> expressions or other string processing (necessary with your syntax).
  >>
  >> > 3. Does XSLT allow me to hook my parser into its structure?
  >>
  >> It depends.  Sorry for the vague answer; however, XSLT extensions are in
  >> general not (very) standard.  MSXML.NET allows use of the C#, Jscript
  >> and VBscript languages.  The Xalan-J application allows you to use Java
  >> or JavaScript extensions.  I think Xalan also allows Perl/TCL, if you
  >> have the appropriate plug-ins.
  >>
  >> --
  >> Jimmy Cerra
  >>
  >> ] "I have learned these days, never to limit
  >> ]  anyone else due to my own limited
  >> ]  imagination." - Dr. Mae C. Jemison
  >>
  >>


-- 
Professor James Hendler                           hendler@cs.umd.edu
  Director, Semantic Web and Agent Technologies         301-405-2696
  Maryland Information and Network Dynamics Lab.      301-405-6707 (Fax)
  Univ of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742      240-731-3822 (Cell)
  http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/hendler