DOAP replacing AUTHORS/MAINTAINERS/etc

drobilla.net ⋅

There's been a bit of talk in the GNOME camp lately about using DOAP instead of the unstructured text files that are the current norm for source packages. On the one hand, people want the benefits of having machine readable data in projects, OTOH, RDF/XML is a nightmare ("I'll never maintain such bloat!" - "That is one hell of an ugly file.").

This is how RDF/XML hurts RDF. The original loathed file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl"?>
<rdf:RDF xml:lang="en"
         xmlns="http://usefulinc.com/ns/doap#" 
         xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" 
         xmlns:asfext="http://projects.apache.org/ns/asfext#">
  <Project rdf:about="http://ant.apache.org/">
    <created>2006-02-17</created>
    <license rdf:resource="http://usefulinc.com/doap/licenses/asl20" />
    <name>Apache Ant</name>
    <homepage rdf:resource="http://ant.apache.org" />
    <asfext:pmc rdf:resource="http://ant.apache.org" />
    <shortdesc>Java-based build tool</shortdesc>
    <description>Apache Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, but without Make\'s wrinkles.</description>
    <bug-database rdf:resource="http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?product=Ant" />
    <mailing-list rdf:resource="http://ant.apache.org/mail.html" />
    <download-page rdf:resource="http://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi" />
    <programming-language>Java</programming-language>
    <category rdf:resource="http://projects.apache.org/category/build-management" />
    <release>
      <Version>
        <name>Apache Ant 1.7.0</name>
        <created>2006-12-13</created>
        <revision>1.7.0</revision>
      </Version>
    </release>
    <repository>
      <SVNRepository>
        <location rdf:resource="http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/ant"/>
        <browse rdf:resource="http://svn.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/ant"/>
      </SVNRepository>
    </repository>
  </Project>
</rdf:RDF>

and the equivalent in Turtle (a subset of N3) (automatically generated with rapper -o turtle doap_Ant.rdf):

@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix : <http://usefulinc.com/ns/doap#> .
@prefix asfext: <http://projects.apache.org/ns/asfext#> .


    a :Project;
    :created "2006-02-17"@en;
    :license ;
    :name "Apache Ant"@en;
    :homepage <http://ant.apache.org>;
    asfext:pmc <http://ant.apache.org>;
    :shortdesc "Java-based build tool"@en;
    :description "Apache Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, but without Make's wrinkles."@en;
    :bug-database <http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?product=Ant>;
    :mailing-list <http://ant.apache.org/mail.html>;
    :download-page <http://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi>;
    :programming-language "Java"@en;
    :category <http://projects.apache.org/category/build-management>;
    :release [
        a :Version;
        :name "Apache Ant 1.7.0"@en;
        :created "2006-12-13"@en;
        :revision "1.7.0"@en
    ];
    :repository [
        a :SVNRepository;
        :location <http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/ant>
        :browse <http://svn.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/ant>
    ] .

I wouldn't want to hand maintain for RDF/XML version either, but the Turtle version? Sure. It's the exact same information, far more human readable, and about as terse as it could be while representing the same information.

The best thing about a syntax independent model like RDF is.. well, it's syntax independent. Choose one that doesn't suck :)