Re: RDF-ISSUE-89 (at-prefix): Should Turtle allow SPARQL's PREFIX like @prefix? [RDF Turtle]

On 10/05/12 17:50, Sandro Hawke wrote:
> On Wed, 2012-05-09 at 18:42 +0000, RDF Working Group Issue Tracker
> wrote:
>> RDF-ISSUE-89 (at-prefix): Should Turtle allow SPARQL's PREFIX like @prefix? [RDF Turtle]
>>
>> http://www.w3.org/2011/rdf-wg/track/issues/89
>>
>> Raised by: Sandro Hawke
>> On product: RDF Turtle
>>
>> The syntaxes of Turtle and SPARQL are very strongly aligned.   There's one glaring difference now, I think.  Turtle has people use "@prefix" to declare their namespace prefixes, but SPARQL uses "PREFIX".
>>
>> Surely this is going to confuse and frustrate users.
>>
>> PROPOSED: Turtle be defined to allow either @prefix or PREFIX, with PREFIX preferred and used in all the examples.
>
> BTW, I'm sorry for bringing this up so late in the process, but I didn't
> step back far enough, earlier, to see it clearly.   Like the rest of
> you, I've seen and used Turtle (and N3) for so long I'm quite used to
> the mandatory at-sign on the prefix and base keywords.

As the proposal is to allow both, we have no need to rush into doing it 
this time round.  I think that a message of change through promotion of 
invalid-to-existing parsers is a negative message.

I have found that data authors, like application developers, take the 
tools as they come and just get on with the job.  Teaching is about the 
the way works, not how it might have been.

(I find the mandatory "" on map keys in JSON is unnecessary and odd. 
But that's the way it is - JSON has been quite successful despite that.)

Technical point: The terminating DOT should also go when using PREFIX.

barewords:

Previous:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-rdf-wg/2011Jun/0046.html

1/ No need to do anything now - unproven idea and when needed may lead 
to different choices.  N3 @keywords is different - more about controlled 
natural language.

2/ More value in the similarity of :foo and ns:foo.  ":" is namespace 
concat.

 Andy

Received on Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:12:00 UTC