[Pointrel-discuss] Generating Clojure from an Ontology - Digital Digressions by Stuart Sierra

[Paul D. F. <pdf...@ku...>]

From:
   http://stuartsierra.com/2009/10/08/generating-clojure-from-an-ontology
"""
I’ve been fascinated with RDF for years, but I always end up frustrated when 
I try to use it. How do you read/write/manipulate RDF data in code? Sure, 
there are lots of libraries, but they all represent RDF data as its 
primitive structures: statements, resources, literals, etc. Working with 
data through these APIs feels like using a glovebox. To get anything useful 
done, you have to define mappings between RDF properties/classes and normal 
data structures in your programming language — classes, maps, lists, 
whatever. In effect, you have to define everything twice. ...
   What I really wanted was a way to create and work with RDF data in 
Clojure, using the same map/set/sequence APIs that I use for any other 
Clojure data structure. I flirted with implementing RDF in Clojure but lost 
interest when I realized that 1) there’s a lot more to implementing RDF than 
datatype conversions; and 2) my Clojure library suffered from the same 
glovebox problem as the Java RDF libraries.
   The solution, however, was staring me in the face all along. Clojure is a 
Lisp. I can generate functions directly, without any intermediate “source” 
representation. I can use my own customized validation and type-checking 
functions. Furthermore, I can extend the definitions in my RDF schema with 
new Clojure functions.
"""

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/
http://www.beyondajoblessrecovery.org/