11.3. A Tutorial on Facts

The basic piece of syntax in XML and RDF is the element, which is frequently expressed as a tag. The basic concept unique to RDF is the fact. A fact does equal one element, but only sometimes equals one tag. What is a fact, and what can you do with one? That is first up. Experts on deductive predicate logic need only glance though this material.

A programmer can glimpse the world of facts through familiar technologies that are a little factlike. Two examples are SQL and make. Manipulating records (rows) in a relational database via SQL's INSERT, DELETE, and particularly SELECT is a little factlike. Retrieving rows with a query is like retrieving facts. Alternatively, stating file dependencies in a make(1) makefile and ...

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