xml-dev - Re: XSchema Question 1: RDF

[Peter Murray-Rust <peter@ursus.demon.co.uk>]

At 15:21 29/05/98 UT, Simon St.Laurent wrote:
>How will XSchema use/relate to RDF?

[... Simon's analysis snipped ...]

First let me say that I am a supporter of RDF and have used it in my
specimen documents to the best of my knowledge.

I share Simon's concerns about RDF. Firstly I don't fully understand it -
and certainly not how it will be used. For example, are there any working
RDF documents other than the examples in the draft? Secondly, there is no
software for authoring or reading it. Of course there *will* be, but the
timescale is important. Let us say that we finish XShema in a month (cf.
SAX). Suppose it were all in RDF - what would most people actually do with
it? But my main concern is that it will detract from the simplicity of the
proposed XSchema (or my assumption of the simplicity :-)

If I write:
<ElementType id="foo">
	<Attribute id="bar">
		<Type>CDATA</Type>
		<Default>#IMPLIED</Default>
	</Attribute>
	<ContentSpec>
		<Seq optional="yes" repeatable="yes>
			<ElementType>plugh</ElementType>
			<ElementType>xyzzy</ElementType>
		</Seq>
	</ContentSpec>
</ElementType>

this is - at present - everything *I* need. What would I need above this?

If it is recast as

<RDF:assertions>
	<RDF:property>ElementType</RDF:property>
etc.
it gets more complex and I don't immediately see the payoff. Since I shall
probably be initially authoring XSchemas by hand (sic) it needs to be
obvious what to write.
I can see that an XSchema2RDF converter might be algorithmically possible.

I appreciate that this may appear simplistic, but I have consistently taken
the line that XML should be kept very simple - I already think there are
bits which will hardly ever be used. We can always add more layers later.

	P.

Peter Murray-Rust, Director Virtual School of Molecular Sciences, domestic
net connection
VSMS http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vsms, Virtual Hyperglossary
http://www.venus.co.uk/vhg

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