Lambda the Ultimate

inactiveTopic N3 -- a notation for writing RDF
started 8/12/2003; 5:47:33 PM - last post 8/12/2003; 5:47:33 PM
Kimberley Burchett - N3 -- a notation for writing RDF  blueArrow
8/12/2003; 5:47:33 PM (reads: 163, responses: 0)
I haven't seen a discussion of N3 on LtU yet, so let's start one.

RDF is a way of specifying predicates in XML. N3 is a notation designed to make writing RDF easier. N3 has some interesting features. For example, it views the "." operator from object-oriented languages as a graph traversal operator, and then promptly provides a "^" operator that traverses the graph in the opposite direction -- something that OO languages cannot do because of the underlying memory model of references and pointers.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about N3 is that it's a notation for a predicate-based data store, designed by someone whose apparent background is closer to C++ and Lisp than to Prolog.