[resending for archival]
Hi Ivan,
Regardless of whether there is a need or not, I don't think that the W3C
is a good venue to standardize any API other than maybe a Web API (and
I'm not even sure about that :-) ).
E.g., were there to be a standard Java API, wouldn't it be better done
via the JSR process (whatever that is)?
Lee
On 1/11/2011 7:05 AM, Ivan Herman wrote:
Dear all,
first of all, a very happy new year to you all!
The reason of this mail is some sort of an informal poll. I am not sure how
closely you followed this, but there has been quite some discussion in the past
few months on the necessity (or not...) of a standard RDF API for Web
Application developers. In practice this means a standard API for
{Java|ECMA}Script, with a particular attention to the needs and programming
style of that community. In parallel to this discussion the RDFa Working
Group[1] had been working on an RDFa API for a while and, in the course of this
work, it became clear that it would be properly done only if a proper RDF API
for Javascript is also defined. So the current thinking at W3C is that we would
slightly recharter the current RDFa Working Group to publish that RDF API part
as a Recommendation, too.
However... that obviously raises the question of non-Javascript API-s to RDF.
The reason I contact you all is because you have all been involved in some way
or other with API definition and/or development for other languages, let that
be C, Java, Python, PHP, or Lisp. It is not clear at this moment whether such
an RDF API work, as envisaged in the RDFa Working Group, should take into
account other programming languages actively from the start (ie, define
something much more generic) or whether it should really concentrate on
Javascript only. There are a number of issues here, including non-technical
ones (the effort it would take both for the developer and the application
community to migrate to a new API is the obvious and huge issue). I for myself
believe that the non-technical issues are the really tough ones; my strictly
_personal_ feeling at this point is that the effort in the Working group should
concentrate on the needs of Javascript/Web Application only, and let o
ther programming language communities decide whether they want to take
that work into account or not. But maybe my judgement on the community's
need is wrong. That is why it would be very helpful for us to get some
feedback from you...
Sincerely
Ivan
P.S. I may have missed somebody in this list. Feel free to add, in your reply,
anybody else whom you think should be consulted...
[1] http://www.w3.org/2010/02/rdfa/
----
Ivan Herman, W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead
Home: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/
mobile: +31-641044153
PGP Key: http://www.ivan-herman.net/pgpkey.html
FOAF: http://www.ivan-herman.net/foaf.rdf
