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Re: [ontology-summit] The tools are not the problem (yet)

To: ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: John F Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 07:16:31 -0500
Message-id: <52E2599F.5090109@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Krzysztof,    (01)

No declarative or procedural language in the history of computer
science and applications has as many notations as RDF and OWL.
That multiplicity is a symptom of a bad design.    (02)

In fact, even the two designers -- Guha and Bray -- admitted that
RDF notation was bad.  As Tim Bray said, "It's the syntax, stupid."    (03)

JFS
>> That is why they [Google] use JSON instead of the XML-based notations.    (04)

KJ
> Just for clarification, RDF is not restricted to XML. You can also use
> N3. There is also a JSON format for Linked Data called JSON-LD.    (05)

JSON, by the way, is just LISP notation with brackets and curly braces.
LISP was, in fact, Guha's preferred notation.  And JSON was designed
by Netscape -- where Guha and Bray were employed at the time.    (06)

But many voters in the W3C were in the grip of an untested ideology:
edict XML for everything.  I had been using GML at IBM since the 1970s,
and I still use HTML for all my word processing.  (I use OpenOffice or
LibreOffice for converting HTML to .doc or .pdf format.)    (07)

But a notation that's good for word processing is a disaster for
logic, ontologies, data storage, data transmission, human factors,
education, and official standards.    (08)

John    (09)

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