--- a/rdf-concepts/index.html Thu May 10 20:01:51 2012 -0400
+++ b/rdf-concepts/index.html Thu May 10 20:02:16 2012 -0400
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
<title>RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax</title>
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.figure { font-weight: bold; text-align: center; }
-table.xsd-types td, table.xsd-types th { border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 0.1em 0.5em; }
+table td, table th { border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 0.2em 0.5em; }
</style>
<script src='../ReSpec.js/js/respec.js' class='remove'></script>
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@@ -246,12 +246,18 @@
<code>http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#</code>.</li>
<li>A good way of communicating the intended referent to the world
- is to set up the IRI so that it resolves to such a document.</li>
+ is to set up the IRI so that it
+ <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/#uri-dereference">dereferences</a>
+ [[WEBARCH]] to such a document.</li>
<li>Such a document can, in fact, be an <a>RDF document</a>
that describes the denoted resource by means of
<a title="RDF statement">RDF statements</a>.</li>
</ul>
+</section>
+
+<section id="vocabularies">
+ <h3>RDF Vocabularies and Namespace IRIs</h3>
<p>An <dfn>RDF vocabulary</dfn> is a collection of <a title="IRI">IRIs</a>
with clearly established <a title="referent">referents</a>
@@ -261,9 +267,32 @@
RDF vocabularies. Some such vocabularies are mentioned in the
Primer [[RDF-PRIMER]].</p>
- <p class="issue">It has been suggested that this specification should
- also define terms such as “<dfn>namespace</dfn>”, “<dfn>namespace IRI</dfn>”,
- and “<dfn>namespace prefix</dfn>”.</p>
+ <p>The <a title="IRI">IRIs</a> in an <a>RDF vocabulary</a> often share
+ a common substring known as a <dfn>namespace IRI</dfn>.
+ Some namespace IRIs are associated by convention with a short name
+ known as a <dfn>namespace prefix</dfn>. Some examples:
+
+ <table rules="all" summary="Some example namespace prefixes and IRIs">
+ <tr><th>Namespace prefix</th><th>Namespace IRI</th><th>RDF vocabulary</th></tr>
+ <tr><td>rdf</td><td><a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"><code>http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#</code></a></td><td>The RDF built-in vocabulary [[RDF-SCHEMA]]</td></tr>
+ <tr><td>rdfs</td><td><a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"><code>http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#</code></a></td><td>The RDF Schema vocabulary [[RDF-SCHEMA]]</td></tr>
+ <tr><td>xsd</td><td><a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#"><code>http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#</code></a></td><td>The <a>RDF-compatible XSD types</a></td></tr>
+ </table>
+
+ <p>In some contexts it is common to abbreviate <a title="IRI">IRIs</a>
+ that start with <a title="namespace IRI">namespace IRIs</a> by using the
+ associated <a>namespace prefix</a>. For example, the IRI
+ <code>http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#XMLLiteral</code>
+ would be abbreviated as <code>rdf:XMLLiteral</code>.
+ Note however that these abbreviations are <em>not</em> valid IRIs,
+ and MUST NOT be used in contexts where IRIs are expected.
+ Namespace IRIs and namespace prefixes are <em>not</em> a formal part of the
+ RDF data model. They are merely a syntactic convenience for
+ abbreviating IRIs.</p>
+
+ <p>The term “<dfn>namespace</dfn>” on its own does not have a
+ well-defined meaning in the context of RDF, but is sometimes incorrectly
+ used to mean “<a>namespace IRI</a>” or “<a>RDF vocabulary</a>”.</p>
</section>
@@ -300,12 +329,23 @@
<section id="conformance">
- <p>Implementations are free to represent <a title="RDF graph">RDF graphs</a> in
- any other equivalent form.</p>
+ <p>This specification, <em>RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax</em>,
+ defines a data model and related terminology for use in
+ other specifications, such as
+ <a title="concrete RDF syntax">concrete RDF syntaxes</a>,
+ API specifications, and query languages.
+ Implementations cannot directly conform to
+ <em>RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax</em>,
+ but can conform to such other specifications that are based on the
+ RDF data model.</p>
- <p class="issue">This section needs to explain what kind of artefact
- can conform to this specification, and what is required in order to
- conform.</p>
+ <p>Another specification conforms to
+ <em>RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax</em> if it defines operations
+ in terms of <a title="RDF graph">RDF graphs</a>
+ or <a title="RDF dataset">RDF datasets</a>, and if any use of
+ terminology defined in normative sections of
+ <em>RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax</em>
+ is consistent with its definitions and conformance requirements.</p>
</section>
@@ -695,8 +735,7 @@
<p>The <a title="literal">literals</a> that can be defined using this
datatype are:</p>
- <table border="1" cellpadding="5" summary=
- "This table lists the literals of type xsd:boolean.">
+ <table rules="all" summary="This table lists the literals of type xsd:boolean.">
<tr>
<th>Literal</th>
<th>Value</th>
@@ -732,7 +771,7 @@
listed in the following table are the
<dfn>RDF-compatible XSD types</dfn>. Their use is RECOMMENDED.</p>
- <table class="xsd-types" rules="all">
+ <table rules="all" summary="A list of the RDF-compatible XSD types, with short descriptions">
<tr><th></th><th>Datatype</th><th>Value space (informative)</th></tr>
<tr><th rowspan="4">Core types</th><td><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema11-2/#string"><code>xsd:string</code></a></td><td>Character strings</td></tr>
@@ -830,9 +869,7 @@
<p>RDF provides for XML content as a possible <a>literal value</a>.
Such content is indicated in an <a>RDF graph</a> using a <a>literal</a>
whose <a>datatype</a> is a special built-in datatype
- <code>rdf:XMLLiteral</code>.</p>
-
- <p><code><dfn>rdf:XMLLiteral</dfn></code> is defined as follows.</p>
+ <code><dfn>rdf:XMLLiteral</dfn></code>, which is defined as follows:</p>
<dl>
<dt><a name="XMLLiteral-uri" id="XMLLiteral-uri">An IRI denoting
@@ -863,22 +900,11 @@
<dt><a name="XMLLiteral-mapping" id="XMLLiteral-mapping">The lexical-to-value mapping</a></dt>
- <dd>is defined as follows:
- <ul>
- <li>Let <code>xmldoc</code> be the literal's lexical form,
- wrapped between an arbitrary XML start-tag and matching end-tag</li>
- <li>Let <code>domdoc</code> be a DOM
- <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/core.html#i-Document"><code>Document</code></a>
- object [[!DOM-LEVEL-3-CORE]] corresponding to <code>xmldoc</code></li>
+ <dd><ul>
<li>Let <code>domfrag</code> be a DOM
<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/core.html#ID-B63ED1A3"><code>DocumentFragment</code></a>
- whose
- <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/core.html#ID-1451460987"><code>childNodes</code></a>
- attribute is equal to the
- <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/core.html#ID-1451460987"><code>childNodes</code></a>
- attribute of <code>domdoc</code>'s
- <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/core.html#ID-87CD092"><code>documentElement</code></a>
- attribute</li>
+ node [[!DOM-LEVEL-3-CORE]] corresponding to the literal's
+ <a>lexical form</a></li>
<li>Return <code>domfrag.<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-3-Core/core.html#ID-normalize">normalize</a>()</code></li>
</ul></dd>
@@ -1107,6 +1133,9 @@
<h2>Changes from RDF 2004</h2>
<ul>
+ <li>2012-05-10: New <a href="#conformance">Conformance section</a> to explain that this specification is not implemented directly, but through other specifications that use our definitions</li>
+ <li>2012-05-10: Simplified <code><a>rdf:XMLLiteral</a></code>'s new value space slightly after feedback from Ivan Herman and Arnaud Le Hors.</li>
+ <li>2012-05-10: Added an informative subsection on <a href="#vocabularies">RDF vocabularies and namespace IRIs</a>.</li>
<li>2012-05-09: Removed an example from the conformance section that didn't make sense any more with the modified <code>rdf:XMLLiteral</code>. Added some new issue boxes.</li>
<li>2012-05-09: <code><a>rdf:XMLLiteral</a></code> no longer requires lexical forms to be canonicalized, and the value space is now defined in terms of [[DOM-LEVEL-3-CORE]] (<a href="https://www.w3.org/2011/rdf-wg/track/issues/13">ISSUE-13</a>)</li>
<li>2012-05-09: Removed Section 3 <em>RDF Vocabulary IRI and Namespace</em>; its contents will be folded into the RDF Schema document</li>