From: James Britt <jamesUNDERBARb@...>
Date: 2004-03-27T13:03:51+09:00
Subject: Question on generic lib names (was Re: [ANN] Ruby-rdf)

dominic sisneros wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I have put up an initial version of ruby-rdf. on Rubyforge.  
> http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-rdf/.  I haven't
> released any files yet because I am still working out how to use Rake  
> and rubyforge but you should be able to download
> from CVS.
> 
> ruby-rdf is a wrapper around the Redland RDF Application Framework.   
> http://www.redland.opensource.ac.uk/
> 

There is also a Ruby-rdf project at
http://www.w3.org/2001/12/rubyrdf/intro.html

I believe it is no longer actively maintained (though he code is still 
available), and has nothing to do with the ruby-rdf project on 
RubyForge.   But as they both use fairly generic names, confusion is easy.

Dominic: Would you consider wrapping the Redland RDF Ruby libs in a 
namespace module, perhaps "Redland", to prevent possible collisions with 
other Ruby RDF lib authors that would want (quite reasonably) to call 
their base file 'rdf'?

The Ruby code for the Redland wrapper show the use of

   require 'rdf'

I would prefer to see

   require 'redland/rdf'

and have code use
  @foaf = Redland::Namespace.new('http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/')

or maybe
  @foaf = Redland::RDF::Namespace.new('http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/')

Or whatever is best for indicating that this is a particular RDF lib, or 
a particular type of lib that works with Redland.

(In general, I tend to think that if a lib is not part of the standard 
lib them it should have a distinguishing namespace module and clarifying 
project name.  But I'm aware of exceptions that seem reasonable, and I 
know there's been a thread on this before.)


Thanks,

James Britt