New SPARQL Draft
A new version of the SPARQL Working Draft released today. Congratulations to the specification editors, Eric and Andy.
Major change in syntax from the previous version: Rather than using the tuple type query syntax (?a ?b ?c) (?a ?d ?e), the query format has changed to be more turtle-like: (?a ?b ?c; ?d ?e .) This is nice, because it lets you merge data entry and data query: I can add a turtle statement <#crschmidt> a foaf:Person; foaf:nick “crschmidt”. and then query for all other people like that: (?p a foaf:Person; foaf:nick ?n.).
Another thing that was mentioned to me the other day is that the new query format doesn’t allow the optional commas between variables you select. So, SELECT ?p, ?n will now be SELECT ?p ?n. Not a big deal, but something that’ll bite me in the butt quite a bit as I get used to the switch.
I currently track Redland/Rasqal releases for querying, so I’m going to be following along with dajobe as he works to get his Rasqal engine to switch to the new format. I know he’s already working on it, and I’m looking forward to being able to show off the new syntax in some of the tools I use, from the sparql interface to julie to the IRC version of the bot. I may even try my hand at one of the later tarballs and see how little C I actually know, and try and figure out if I can help in any way.
All in all, a major new release, so if you’re using SPARQL, pay attention!