From: Drew McDermott ([email protected])
Date: 04/05/02
One very brief answer to why use DAML as opposed to XML is that a set of DAML statements by itself (and the DAML spec) can allow you to conclude another DAML statement whereas a set of XML statements, by itself (and the XML spec) does not allow you to conclude any other DAML statements. To employ XML to generate new data, you need knowledge embedded in some procedural code somewhere, rather than explicitly stated, as in DAML. For example, the triples (motherOf subProperty parentOf) (Mary motherOf Bill) when stated in DAML, allows you to conclude (Mary parentOf Bill) based on the logical definition of "subProperty" as given in the DAML spec. The same information stated in XML does not allow you to assert the third fact. XML itself provides no semantics for its tags. One might create a program that assigns similar semantics to a "subProperty" tag, but since that semantics isn't part of the XML spec, applications could be written which conform to the XML spec, and yet do not make that assertion. Adam You've hit the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned. Why not crank out a little white paper? -- Drew
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : 03/26/03 EST