[HN Gopher] W3C Invites Implementations of RDF Dataset Canonical...
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       W3C Invites Implementations of RDF Dataset Canonicalization
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 16 points
       Date   : 2023-11-02 19:44 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.w3.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.w3.org)
        
       | xamde wrote:
       | > The document is primarily intended for the following audiences:
       | Software developers that want to implement an RDF dataset
       | canonicalization algorithm.         Masochists.
       | 
       | Pick your side.
        
         | no_wizard wrote:
         | In case anyone is wondering, its really what it says:
         | 
         | https://www.w3.org/TR/2023/CR-rdf-canon-20231031/#how-to-rea...
        
         | oever wrote:
         | I've yet to see a convincing use-case to canonicalize RDF
         | graphs.
         | 
         | The document cites these use-cases:
         | 
         | There are different use cases where graph or dataset
         | canonicalization are important:                   Determining
         | if one serialization is isomorphic to another.         Digital
         | signing of graphs (datasets) independent of serialization or
         | format.         Comparing two graphs (datasets) to find
         | differences.         Communicating change sets when remotely
         | updating an RDF source.
         | 
         | These are not real-world use-cases. Why would one want to sign
         | independent of serialization or format? The real-world need is
         | that people start signing graphs. But why would they sign some
         | abstract format that is independent of serialization format?
         | That supposedly independent format is a format too and will
         | have competition soon. It's the way of the world: fork, fork
         | fork.
         | 
         | I'm signing my RDF graphs as bytearrays with PGP and avoid all
         | the hassle.
        
       | robto wrote:
       | I worked on implementing this last summer in Clojure, is this the
       | same URDNA2015 specification? I got all but three of the tests in
       | the test suite working, but in the end ditched it for a java
       | library that already had it.
       | 
       | This is really useful for signing json-ld, it goes a bit further
       | then regular normalization schemes like JCS by allowing different
       | arrangements of the same data graph to hash to the same thing.
        
       | zozbot234 wrote:
       | Correct me if I'm wrong, but AIUI known algorithms for graph
       | canonicalization are NP hard. (Graph isomorphism has been found
       | to be likely lower in complexity, but canonicalization is not the
       | same problem as graph isomorphism). Given blank nodes, the
       | problem of finding a canonical form for RDF is at least as hard
       | as graph canonicalization. So this is a non-starter for general
       | RDF graphs, you'd have to severely restrict the use of blank
       | nodes to make this practical and the way you do this will likely
       | be application-dependent.
        
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       (page generated 2023-11-02 23:00 UTC)