Re: !

On Jan 08, 2004, at 19:12, ext wrote:
> Now, this doesn't mean at all the gap can be filled with a reasonable
> effort. In order to answer this question, one has to do some serious
> thinking. There has been some people already starting to think about
> this; I myself, right now, don't have a clear answer to that, and have
> given three (!) Master Theses projects just to better study the various
> approaches on how this integration could work out well, as I feel
> that without serious trying, I won't be able to give a definitive
> answer to this question.
> So, to know the answer, we need to carefully have a look at the 
> problem.
> Avoiding the problem altogether (XQuery is complex, who cares,
> native solutions are easier) is tempting, but still doesn't
> give an answer to the question: can we fill the gap in a reasonable 
> way,
> where the cost/benefit is well worth and superior to other solutions?


I agree, in that if XQuery could be made to work for RDF knowledge
bases, that would be a good thing, for alot of XML folks, but I
still don't see any strong evidence that it is an optimal approach
for the SW community.

My own comments have not been based on a view of "let's just avoid
the problem because it's too hard" but are practically and pragmatically
motivated by what can be accomplished in at most 12 months, yet be
reasonably useful for several years.

I.e. (a) we're talking about a WG that is to start shortly, (b) there
is already alot of real-world experience implementing "native" RDF
query solutions, (c) there is an acute (some would say severe/critical)
need for a standardized means of knowledge access, and (d) XQuery
is complex and sufficiently different from RDF in concept/model
that it seems to me that while exploring a possible mapping of XQuery
to RDF graphs might ultimately prove to be a reasonable and productive
effort, it is IMMHO too large a task with too many unknowns for the WG
in question to provide a spec in 12 months, and has the substantial
risk of opening up a pandora's box of problems that can take far too
long to resolve -- yet once solidly down that path, the WG would likely
not choose to turn back towards a native solution.

Those who are interested in the application of XQuery to RDF knowledge
bases could, and should, continue their research -- but I remain
very skeptical as to whether XQuery would be the optimal path for
an RDF query solution.

Regards,

Patrick

--

Patrick Stickler
Nokia, Finland
patrick.stickler@nokia.com

Received on Friday, 9 January 2004 02:27:39 UTC