Re: [namespaceDocument-8] 14 Theses, take 2

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Bray" <tbray@textuality.com>
To: "TAG" <www-tag@w3.org>

> >TimBL made the point that if the only definitive material
> >I have about my namespace is, say, an XML Schema, why
> >not use that as a namespace document? i.e. why use
> >indirection just for the sake of it?
>
> Because I just have trouble believing in an interesting
> namespace whose only definitive material is an XML Schema;
> or any other kind of schema, using "schema" in the syntax-
> constraint sense.  Can we have some examples please?

Most folks who use DAML+OIL, soon to be WebOnt, to define
an ontology I th9ink feel they are done without any other material,
as the best practice is to put the descriptions into the ontology docuement
where they are explicitly associated with the properties being defined.
http://www.daml.org/ontologies/uri.html  lists a whole bunch of ontologies
defined in DAML.


[...]
DanC:
> >I'm not interested in debating
> >
> >  12. Namespace documents should be human-readable.
> >
> >independent of a principle that
> >
> >  Documents should be human-readable.
TBray:
> Well, I am.  It's hard to see how SVG and MathML and RDF and
> X3D can be made usefully human-readable.  We're not allowed
> to talk about whether namespace docs should be human-readable
> until we have solutions in place for the whole spectrum of
> languages?  I am arguing precisely that namespace documents
> have an unusually strong requirement for human readability. -Tim

Hang on - SVG is human-readable, as is MathML and X3D -- all are langauges
for material to be presentedto a human.  We are not talking about making the
source human-readble I hope.

RDF is an interesting case but making it human-readable is doable in orll
sorts of ways.  You can use a style sheet (@@ example on line?) and you can
use RDF schema information to give you ways of represnting properties and
classes, and you can use knowledge of things like titles to represent other
things, so in many cases making an RDF file human readable is a
straightforward excercise. Eric Miller has an RDF schema viewer somewhere
(@@link?)

Tim

Received on Wednesday, 27 February 2002 18:54:10 UTC