[okfn-help] ORDF ticket #53: work with vanilla rdflib, remove 4store dependencies.

Wed Jun 16 15:23:54 BST 2010

On 10-06-16 06:15, Graham Higgins wrote:
>
> "The windows build was always problematic. That's why the C sparql
> parser was swapped for a pure python one later. Unfortunately the pure
> python parser was never 100% polished, and was never released."

Yeah. I'd just say that we don't support Windows. I can't imagine
getting 4store to build on Windows without a lot of work :P

> Ah, I was viewing ORDF primarily as an independent library and I
> assessed the situation in terms of whether it could compromise the
> functioning of ORDF as a library. I have to admit, I didn't even think
> of considering the ticket from the more pragmatic perspective of ORDF
> being primarily a component of Bibliographica.

In principle I think you're right -- it should be an independent
library. Only at the moment there are only 2.5 projects that are using
it (bibliographica, semantic.ckan and maybe wdmmg). wdmmg is likely to
stress it more...

> On the whole, I thought there was just too much downside to embracing
> rdflib in its current state but then again I'm not in the best
> position to weigh up the pros and cons vs how frequently people are
> encountering show-stopping 4store compile/install problems.

So I agree, a big caveat to anyone trying to use rdflib as a back-end
for anything serious, highly recommend using 4store. I don't think the
4store problems are particularly show-stopping. Most of the issues that
people seem to have are bad/old versions of the dependencies and/or
version skew -- 4store built from one source tree and py4s from another.

Hopefully in the fullness of time rdflib will get better and the
distribution/packaging of 4store will get better. At which time we will
be ready!

Cheers,
-w

-- 
William Waites           <william.waites at okfn.org>
Mob: +44 789 798 9965    Open Knowledge Foundation
Fax: +44 131 464 4948                Edinburgh, UK