RE: MT for imports (was: Re: Imports Proposal)

I remain entirely baffled by all of this.

As Jerome Euzenat wrote:

> The timed web structure applies to ontologies exactly like it applies to
> hyperlinks in html, xsl:include and xsl:imports in XSLT, etc.

Of course, some advanced version of imports would depend on the "timed web 
structure" (Massimo), but I cannot see how that should stop us from providing 
something simple.

Lots and lots of computer languages provide import-like things,
varying from C to Scheme, and from LaTeX to XML. None of these have any of 
the problems raised in the preceding discussion. Pat's example of someone 
changing an imported file is common to all of these, happily ignored by all 
of them, and rightly so, since it doesn't seem to break any of them, the 
meaning and pragmatics of these import constructions is entirely clear for 
all of them. If it works for XML, why wouldn't it work for OWL?

I can simply not imagine standing up in front of a crowd, proudly explaining 
OWL, and having to admit that,... eh... no, well... actually, in OWL you 
cannot import other people's ontologies...

Frank.
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Received on Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:52:10 UTC