[MOBY-l] DAML/OIl editor for viewing MyGrid ontology

[Phillip Lord]

>>>>> "Simon" == Simon Twigger <simont at mcw.edu> writes:

  >> Yes and no. Translating to OWL by itself is (nearly) trivial and
  >> something that we can just do.
  >>

  Simon> I found a convertor script from DAML+OIL to OWL so i did
  Simon> wonder if I was missing something here.

There are some things that DAML+OIL can do which OWL cannot (and vice
versa). And the mygrid ontology does use them at points. It adds to
the complexity. 

  >> The deeper issue is considering the semantics of OWL and the less
  >> defined semantics of OBO. We could just take the ontology as
  >> stands and turn it into a DAG. But if we just take the class
  >> hierarchy we will loose much of the information.

  Simon> By OBO-style I take it that you are referring to the DAG
  Simon> structure of something like GO. What would be goal be of
  Simon> converting to this style - a more 'friendly' format for
  Simon> existing users to work from, rather than asking them to step
  Simon> up to OWL and the extra complexity & functionality?

Mostly the later. One obvious way to manage the complexity is to keep
the source ontology as the OWL version that mygrid has using reasoning
the like. The OBO style ontology would then be an alternate simplified
view. Clearly its easier to generate out a simpler representation from
a richer one than the other way around. 


  >>
  >> The reasoner does something more complex. In a description logic
  >> based ontology you tend to model the classes by describing their
  >> properties and then let the reasoner work out what subclass and
  >> super class relationships.

  Simon> Thanks for the explanation of the reasoner, it makes much
  Simon> more sense now.

I wish I could say that same. I've been using it for several years and
I still don't quite understand what the reasoner does!

Cheers

Phil