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Specifications created by the Hydra W3C Community Group
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`void:triples` redefined to be an estimate #89

Closed akuckartz closed 9 years ago

akuckartz commented 9 years ago

According to http://www.hydra-cg.com/spec/latest/triple-pattern-fragments/ the object of the property void:triples is

an integer literal expressing the estimated total number of matching triples"

But http://www.w3.org/TR/void/ states:

The total number of triples contained in the dataset

And that document states for void:documents:

This property is intended for datasets where the total number of triples or entities is hard to determine. void:triples or void:entities should be preferred where practical.

That seems to substantiate that void:triples was intended for precise numbers, not estimates.

In October 2014 there was a mail thread where a different opinion was presented:

totalItems vs void:triples [mail thread] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-hydra/2014Oct/0048.html

I think it would be better to define and use a new property hydra:estimatedTiples or hydra:triplesEstimate. Maybe that property can be defined as a super-property of void:triples.

RubenVerborgh commented 9 years ago

I replied on-list.

akuckartz commented 9 years ago

Yes, I agree. Sorry for not having read that paragraph in the VoID specification. I only had searched for the property name in it :-(

But that illustrates that it can help to be a bit more verbose in the documentation of a property so that it can stand for itself - especially when a term ("total number") is not used according to the usual semantics ! Maybe that can be considered for a future version of the VoID specification.