The other possibility is Versa [1] which has quite a different syntax to the possibilities that Chris and Emmanuel mention, but has been designed for the same problem.
Just a side comment:
I think XPath has been an amazing enabler in XML, as it's used as a building block in lots of other things e.g. XSLT, Schematron, XForms, XQuery etc. So my guess is RDF needs something similar. I also don't think RDQL-like languages quite cut it for these type of applications (although obviously they are very good for other things) as they are a bit verbose - for example Libby Miller and Dan Brickley had quite a cool idea of reworking of Schematron for RDF, using RDQL [2], and it felt to me like RDQL / Squish was not quite the right tool for the task
However I also think the current solutions of hacking XPath although as being a temporary solution rather than the ideal longterm solution. Furthermore I have observed other applications of RDF that would benefit from a language like this - for example the Device Independence Working Group have the same problem querying CC/PP profiles in rules that adapt content [3].
So Eric, what do you think - any chance of a W3C R(DF)Path Working Group or task force? Or do you think this is something DAWG should (or perhaps are) looking at? (I'm guessing here that Eric is subscribed to this list?)
[1]
http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/rdf/versa/
[2]
http://swordfish.rdfweb.org/discovery/2001/01/schemarama/
[3]
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-di-wg/2004Aug/0064.html
(Member only link)
cheers
Dr Mark H. Butler
mark-h.butler_at_hp.com
HP Labs Bristol
http://www.hpl.hp.com/people/marbut
-----Original Message-----
From: Emmanuel Pietriga [mailto:Emmanuel.Pietriga_at_lri.fr]
Sent: 06 October 2004 11:21
To: general_at_simile.mit.edu
Subject: Re: RDF Display Vocabulary Second Draft
Chris Bizer wrote:
> As I see it, there are the following proposals:
>
> TreeHugger, Demian Steer, 2003-09
> ReoPath, Neil Deakin, 2003-05
> N3's Path Syntax, Tim Berners-Lee, 2002-03 A fragment identifier
> syntax for RDF, Jonathan Borden, 2001-05 Contrasting Logic Over XPath
> and RDF, Eric Prud'hommeaux, 2002-02 RDFPath Proposal, Aaron Swartz,
> 2001-06 Quick introduction to RDFPath, Stefan Kokkelink, 2001-03
> (copied from http://infomesh.net/2003/rdfpath/)
>
> Emmanuel, do you know about any others?
There is RxPath [1] which seems interesting.
[1]
http://rx4rdf.liminalzone.org/RxPath
>
> We should also decide which functions we are needing, stuff like
> "_at_startsWith('http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/')" and how we handle conditions:
>
> :styleDomain "_at_vCard:TEL [ * [
> _at_rdf:type=<http://www.w3.org/2001/vcard-rdf/3.0#home>] ]"
>
> was supposed to mean:
> Apply the style, on all vCard:TEL properties, which have a resource or
> bNode as value, which has the RDF type vcard#home. I'm sure that there
> are better alternatives to my syntax. Any ideas?
Maybe something closer to the rxPath syntax (if applicable) ould be nice.
--
Emmanuel Pietriga
INRIA Futurs - Projet In Situ tel : +33 1 69 15 34 66
Bat 490, Université Paris-Sud fax : +33 1 69 15 65 86
91405 ORSAY Cedex mailto:emmanuel.pietriga_at_lri.fr
Received on Wed Oct 06 2004 - 10:43:57 EDT