[SCL] Approach to a concrete syntax

[Murray Altheim]

Tanel Tammet wrote:
[...]
> It seems that the XML concrete syntax I wrote and Murray continued to 
> work on has created a lot of contradictions, since people do have 
 > different aims/viewpoints, roughly like this:
> 
> - markup viewpoint
> - FOL viewpoint
> - RDF/RFS family viewpoint
> 
> The current XML concrete syntax does not fit nicely into the RDF/RDFS 
> viewpoint and this has created uneasy feelings for people. In whatever 
> way we improve/modify the current XML concrete syntax, this problem 
 > won't change.
> 
> It now seems to me that maybe we should drop the current XML concrete 
> syntax (not that it should be REALLY dropped or that  Murray should 
 > drop it) but rather avoid putting any stress on it at all: not publish
> it in the SCL papers once we create these.
> 
> Instead we should perhaps really create the RDF/RDFS-friendly version
> of concrete XML syntax instead and work on improving this syntax.

I see absolutely no reason to believe that there's any difference
whatsoever in XML vs. RDF/RDFS in avoiding these issues. The same
issues for RDF/RDFS exist, and in fact are complicated by the fact
that RDF/RDFS brings with it its own set of semantics which are not
the same as SCL. And the fact that after years of trying, many of
the fundamental issues in RDF are not yet resolved, it's hardly a
vote of confidence on SCL-in-RDF somehow avoiding them.

You're in the same pig pen as I am, Tanel, and I think the mud in
your part of the pen is a bit thicker. But you're welcome to it.

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim                         http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/murray/
Knowledge Media Institute
The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK                    .

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