Re: Alternative RDF/XML serializations

Jimmy
1. I like your "qualified names with a vengeance".
It captures the spirit of my suggestion.
2. I think some further simplifications are possible for Literals.
I'm not too sure exactly what is legal, but I'd like to replace
    <dc:creator>
        <r:Literal>Jimmy</r:Literal>
        <r:Literal>Jamie</r:Literal>
    </dc:creator>
with something like
    <dc:creator
        r:Literal="Jimmy"
        r:Literal="Jamie"/>
3. My ideal translation of Tim Bray's example is
    <MKR
        xmlns    ="http://rhm.cdepot.net/xml/"
        xmlns:ex ="http://www.example.com/terms/"
         xmlns:dc ="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    >
    Dave Beckett has
        ex:homepage="http://purl.org/net/dajobe";
    document has
        dc:title="RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised)",
        ex:editor=Dave Beckett,
        uri="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-syntax-grammar";
    </MKR>

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jimmy Cerra" <jimbobbs@hotmail.com>
To: <www-rdf-logic@w3.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 9:44 PM
Subject: Alternative RDF/XML serializations


> 
> There have been quite a few criticisms of the official XML serialization
> of RDF [1, 2, 3].  One common comment (to me, anyway) is that RDF/XML is
> hard to read [3, 4].  Another criticism (that I can relate with) is that
> generating HTML from the serialization using XSLT is complicated [5].
> So, I started thinking about alternative representations in XML.
> 
> One idea, inspired by Dick McCullough [3], uses qualified names with a
> vengeance:
> 
> <r:RDF
> xmlns:r="http://purl.org/jfc/2003/05/25/x-rdf-1#"
> xmlns:jfc="http://purl.org/jfc/2003/05/25/ex-1#"
> xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
> 
> <jfc:myDocument>
> <r:type>
> <jfc:webPage />
> </r:type>
> <dc:creator>
> <r:Literal>Jimmy</r:Literal>
> <r:Literal>Jamie</r:Literal>
> </dc:creator>
> </jfc:myDocument>
> 
> <r:Resource r:name="jfc:anotherDocument">
> <r:type><jfc:pdf /></r:type>
> <dc:creator><r:Literal>Jimmy</r:Literal></dc:creator>
> </r:Resource>
> 
> <r:Resource r:uri="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-mt/">
> <r:type><jfc:w3cDocument /></r:type>
> <r:Property r:uri="http://www.w3.org#Editor">
> <r:Literal>Patrick Hayes</r:Literal>
> </r:Property>
> <r:Property r:uri="http://www.w3.org#Series%20Editor">
> <r:Literal>Brian McBride</r:Literal>
> </r:Property>
> </r:Resource>
> 
> </r:RDF>
> 
> That example uses the element name to identify the thing being
> described.  Exceptions are made for elements in the "r" namespace.
> Since some things may not be able to be described with an element name
> (such as literals and uris), the r:Resource, r:Property and r:Literal
> elements are provided.  The attribute r:uri (for uris) and r:name (for
> qualified names) indicates the thing being described in that case.
> 
> Each child of the r:RDF element is a subject of a RDF statement.  The
> children in level 2 of the XML tree are predicates (or properties).
> Finally, level 3 contains the objects for each statement.  If a property
> contains more than one child, then they are described by a bag; for
> instance in the first child of the r:RDF element above:
> 
> <jfc:myDocument>
> <dc:creator>
> <r:Literal>Jimmy</r:Literal>
> <r:Literal>Jamie</r:Literal>
> </dc:creator>
> </jfc:myDocument>
> 
> ...means, in the official serialization:
> 
> <rdf:Description
> rdf:about="http://purl.org/jfc/2003/05/25/ex-1#myDocument">
> <dc:creator>
> <rdf:Bag>
> <rdf:li>Jimmy</rdf:li>
> <rdf:li>Jamie</rdf:li>
> </rdf:Bag>
> </dc:creator>
> </rdf:Description>
> 
> Another possible serialization uses properties:
> 
> <r:RDF
> xmlns:r="http://purl.org/jfc/2003/05/25/x-rdf-1#"
> xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
> <dc:creator
> r:of="http://www.foo.com/Document">
> <r:Literal>Jimmy</r:Literal>
> </dc:creator>
> <dc:creator
> r:of="http://www.foo.com/Document"
> r:is="http://www.foo.com/Mary" />
> </r:RDF>
> 
> This serialization uses attributes to represent subjects (value of r:of)
> and objects (value of r:is); the predicate is the parent element.
> Literals are again wrapped in r:Literal elements and are also children
> of the properties (unlike resources, which are referred to in r:of
> attributes).
> 
> Tim Bray also came up with a simple serialization [1]:
> 
> <RPV xmlns="http://www.rdf.net/rpv/">
>  <R id="Dave" pbase="http://www.example.com/terms/">
>   <PV p="fullName">Dave Beckett</PV>
>   <PV p="homePage" v="http://purl.org/net/dajobe" />
>   </R>
>  <R r="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-syntax-grammar">
>   <PV p="http://www.example.com/terms/editor" v="#Dave" />
>   <PV p="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title">
>     RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised)
>     </PV>
>   </R>
>  </RPV>
> 
> I personally don't like this representation.  The element names are not
> very descriptive.  I suppose that it could be validated against a DTD;
> however, and that is a significant positive aspect of his idea.
> 
> Other ideas - that I have - include adding id attributes to properties
> so rdf statements can be talked about (called rectification, right?) and
> adding conditional attributes to properties for scope and context.
> Finally, attributes could be added to rdf:li elements to indicated roles
> of "elements" (not XML elements, but mathematical/set-theory elements)
> in a set or container.
> 
> --
> Jimmy Cerra
> 
> ] "I had to learn very early not to limit
> ]  myself due to others limited imagination."
> ]  - Dr. Mae C. Jemison
> 
> Notes:
> [1] http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/21/RDFNet
> [2] http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/11/27/rdf.html
> [3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-logic/2003May/0036.html
> [4] http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/200211/msg00750.html
> [5] http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~alison/www9/paper.html

Received on Sunday, 25 May 2003 02:48:21 UTC