[jsdl-wg] Naming elements

[Karl Czajkowski]

Perhaps I am being too informal for your liking, but I think the JSDL
specificaiton is intrinsically defining an ontology of jobs already,
i.e. what are the meaningful concepts of jobs that can be submitted.
The semantics of the various JSDL XML bits are described in English
using this implied ontology.  Anyone can read the specification and
write out the set of concepts into their favorite formalism. What
makes it an ontology is its "job-space characterization nature",
rather than it being written one way or another!

The only question is how explicitly will the specification call out
this fact?  If it does nothing, there is an implicit ontology being
presented.

The spec could pay a little respect to the ontology-obsessed by
calling out the various concepts or tabulating them somehow. It could
encourage reuse by tweaking the XML schema and discussions to
emphasize the meaning of "atomic" syntaxes without being tied to the
enclosing JSDL document context more than necessary (as I think Donal
is suggesting?).

At the far other extreme, the specification could try to formalize the
ontology using some ontology modeling language.  I wholeheartedly
agree that there should not be an undertaking here at this time (or
ever?).

karl


On Apr 14, Michel Drescher loaded a tape reading:
> >It is this message/discussion that I was referring to during the 
> >telecon.
> >
> >Examining the current spec indicates that we do not define an ontology,
> >and this is because we specify what elements must contain other
> >elements. By dropping the reference from element definitions to their
> >parents (as used in a job-defining document) we can define an ontology
> >*as well*. Sounds like a win all round to me.
> 
> In this respect I fully agree. I am not objecting the idea of defining 
> an ontology at all.
> It is simply the fact that changing the spec to define an ontology will 
> cause quite some text changes and general reorganisation of the 
> specifcation document itself. I'd rather postpone this to a later JSDL 
> version.
> 
> Cheers,
> Michel

-- 
Karl Czajkowski
karlcz at univa.com