[SCL] Approach to a concrete syntax

[pat hayes]

>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.

They are entirely compatible with SCL, although much less complicated 
since RDFS is a much less complicated language.  Please, guys, don't 
confuse the airwaves with hasty assertions about semantics.

>And the fact that after years of trying, many of
>the fundamental issues in RDF are not yet resolved,

I don't know what issues you are referring to, but RDFS is pretty 
tightly specified at this stage and has no fundamental problems that 
I am aware of.

Pat


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