TRIPLE-A query, inference, and transformation language for the Semantic Web

Abstract

This paper presents TRIPLE, a layered and modular rule language for the Semantic Web [1]. TRIPLE is based on Horn logic and borrows many basic features from F-Logic [11] but is especially designed for querying and transforming RDF models [20]. TRIPLE can be viewed as a successor of SiLRI (Simple Logic-based RDF Interpreter [5]). One of the most important differences to F-Logic and SiLRI is that TRIPLE does not have a fixed semantics for object-oriented features like classes and inheritance. Its layered architecture allows such features to be easily defined for different object-oriented and other data models like UML, Topic Maps, or RDF Schema [19]. Description logics extensions of RDF (Schema) like OIL [17] and DAML+OIL [3] that cannot be fully handled by Horn logic are provided as modules that interact with a description logic classifier, e.g. FaCT [9], resulting in a hybrid rule language. This paper sketches syntax and semantics of TRIPLE. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.