Resource Description Format and XML-Data

Joe Lapp jlapp at acm.org
Thu Jan 29 11:40:54 GMT 1998


> I am confused about the intent and overlap of the XML-Data and RDF
> initiatives. [...]

My understanding is that the overlap is between XML-DATA and the RDF
schema effort, rather than the whole of the RDF effort.  XML-DATA is
a way to express DTDs in XML as well as a way to represent types in
general in XML (DTDs are not expressive enough for types in general).
The RDF schema effort only needs to be general enough to represent
the narrow range of types needed to support the RDF syntax.  XML-DATA
is more ambitious, and so being, is out of the scope of RDF.

The question then becomes: Is there a place in the W3C for something
as ambitious as XML-DATA, and if so, what impact does this have on
the RDF schema effort (and vice versa)?  I think this is one of the
first questions that the W3C will need to answer.  XML-DATA might
spawn a superset of RDF schema, possibly based on RDF schema.

I agree that this is a confusing issue, but I'm not inclined to think
of this as an affront to RDF.  There may be a need for such generality.

--
Joe Lapp             | Technology Analyst
jlapp at webmethods.com | webMethods, Inc.
jlapp at acm.org        | http://www.webmethods.com

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