RE: DQL Spec and Announcement

From: mburke ([email protected])
Date: 08/29/02

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    Congratulations to Richard and to the rest of the group for this
    accomplishment.
    
    Murray A. Burke
    Program Manager
    DARPA/IXO
    3701 N. Fairfax Drive		Phone: 703-696-2303
    Arlington, VA 22203-1714	Fax:     517-218-4550
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     -----Original Message-----
    From: 	Richard Fikes [mailto:[email protected]] 
    Sent:	Thursday, August 29, 2002 4:04 PM
    To:	Joint Committee
    Subject:	DQL Spec and Announcement
    
     << File: DQL Spec 8-29.htm >> Attached is an updated version of the DQL
    spec as per the telecon on
    Tuesday.  Specifically, I made the following changes:
    
    * Added a hyperlink to the title of the spec.
    
    * Replaced the version number of DQL with "August 2002" throughout the
    document.
    
    * Changed "Informal Specification" to "Abstract Specification".
    
    * Added a footnote to "Abstract Specification" saying that the spec does
    not include a recommendation for a normative syntax for the language.
    
    * Added a hyperlink and a footnote to "DAML Joint Committee".  The
    footnote lists the current membership of the committee.
    
    * Changed the wording of the first sentence from "DAML Query Language
    (DQL) is a formal language and protocol for posing queries from a
    querying agent (which we refer to as the client) to an answering agent
    (which we refer to as the server)." to "DAML Query Language (DQL) is a
    formal language and protocol for a querying agent and an answering agent
    to use in conducting a query-answering dialogue using knowledge
    represented in DAML+OIL."  That change was motivated by the observations
    that (1) DQL is not just for "posing queries" but also for getting back
    answers, and (2) we didn't say anywhere that this was a query language
    for DAML+OIL.
    
    I inserted the "(which we refer to as the client)" and "(which we refer
    to as the server)" later in the document when the protocol elements of
    the language are first discussed.  I also inserted a hyperlink on the
    first mention of DAML+OIL.
    
    * I moved some of the commentary about justifications to a footnote.
    
    * I added "(possibly empty)" to the description of a binding set.
    
    * I made the text consistently say that a server continuation can
    consist of "one or more termination tokens".
    
    
    Regarding the announcement, the wording needs to be changed to be
    consistent with these changes.  The first two paragraphs of the draft
    announcement are as follows:
    
    > The Joint US/EU ad hoc Agent Markup Language Committee [1]
    > is pleased to announce the initial release [2] of the DAML
    > Query Language (DQL), which supports queries, potentially
    > involving inference, of remote DAML+OIL (March 2001) [3]
    > knowledge bases.
    > 
    > The current release consists of an informal specification.
    > Continuing work is expected to result in a concrete syntax,
    > a formal specification, and a fully defined justification
    > mechanism.
    
    I suggest they be changed to read as follows:
    
    The Joint US/EU ad hoc Agent Markup Language Committee [1] is pleased to
    announce the initial release [2] of the DAML
    Query Language (DQL).  DQL provides a language and protocol for
    agent-to-agent query-answering dialogues using knowledge represented in
    DAML+OIL (March 2001), potentially involving inference and remote
    knowledge bases.
    
    The current release consists of an abstract specification.  Continuing
    work is expected to result in a normative external syntax and a fully
    defined specification of answer justifications.
    
    
    Richard
    


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