If there is interest in this discussion, I came up with a list of
high-level thoughts about RDFLib.
I want to preface that what I described as issues are not meant to put
anyone in a corner. I am aware that this is a volunteer-based project
and no one is expected to be a full-time maintainer of it.
As for the points, on the technical side:
1. Performance could use some improvement. There are great libraries for
Python that use more of the underlying C libraries. Especially for
computationally intensive operations such as serializing and
deserializing, as well as SPARQL, rewriting some functions as C
extensions or using CFFI or Cython could make RDFLib competitive with
several triple stores. (I am also aware that this is not a trivial task...)
And the more management-related:
2. RDFLib has great functionality, unfortunately a lot is hidden in
code. I find myself looking through the code more often than at the
documentation, which is very good in certain areas and completely absent
in others. If I have a #1 qualm about RDFLib, that is documentation
coverage. This also makes it hard to attract new contributors.
3. There is a large number of PRs that are passing tests, most of them
also apparently agreed upon and ready for merging. A quicker turnaround
in the community contribution process would definitely encourage more
contributions.
4. Similarly, the number of issues that receive no response (let alone
being resolved) is an indicator of the health of the project. That is at
least one thing that I look at when I evaluate open source software.
With RDFLib, the overall quality of the code and the lack of
alternatives were stronger factors for adoption, but one can't always
rely on those.
5. Knowledge retention. I recall an email (or github issue?) exchange
where I inqured about a design decison and learned that nobody actively
contributing to the code may have an answer. I think that reaching out
to previous key contributors and ask for some documentation, or at least
an informal explanation, of certain code would go a long way.
These are my thoughts, put very plainly. Again, this is not meant to be
a string of complaints, but rather a way to point out areas to work on.
I recognize that there is a great deal of hard work in RDFLib and I
think it would be much more convenient to improve it than starting
something else from scratch. Users may need to be made aware of this.
Let me know what the preferred way to continue this conversation would be.
Best,
Stefano
On 04/27/2018 03:47 PM, scossu wrote:
Gunnar, Jörn,
The goals you mention seem very important for the project.
All the code writing & reviewing that I can afford I am spending on a
side project, but I would be interested in increasing sustainability for
RDFLib, e.g. identifying other projects that run mission-critical
applications and depend on RDFLib and trying to establish a
collaboration, as well as finding ways to make the code more accessible
to contribution.
I would be available for a phone call or teleconference to kick ideas
around, if you are interested.
Best,
Stefano
p.s. on a side note—Jörn, speaking of storage back ends, I implemented a
back end for LMDB which I am quite happy with so far: > https://github.com/scossu/lakesuperior/blob/master/lakesuperior/store/ldp_rs/lmdb_store.py
It is quite embedded in specific features of my project but I thought it
would be interesting to share (and probably not too hard to make it an
RDFLib module).
On Friday, April 27, 2018 at 8:12:52 AM UTC-5, Jörn Hees wrote:
Hi,
full +1 wrt. next steps and any help is obviously welcome.
I'll hopefully find some time to work on integration of HDT as
storage backend soon, which might be a good chance to also finally
integrate a sink.
But before doing that i'll probably focus on releasing 5.0.0, which
i had pushed away to free some time.
Best,
Jörn
> On 27 Apr 2018, at 12:07, Gunnar Aastrand Grimnes
<grom...@gmail.com <javascript:>> wrote:
>
> Hi Stefano,
>
> RDFLib has had a series of volunteer developers since 2002 (!)
>
> The last few years it's mainly been myself and Jörn Hees who make
> releases, but we've both had increasingly little time. (Jörn
finishing
> his PhD, me working on things not related to RDF).
>
> Roadmap is a big word, and I don't think I would say we have
anything
> like it :), but if I had some time I would try get the following
done:
>
> * a real interface for triple sinks and support for streaming
parsers:
> https://github.com/RDFLib/rdflib/pull/411
<https://github.com/RDFLib/rdflib/pull/411>
> * move a bunch of things out of rdflib-core - like microdata/rdfa
> parsers (already weirdly copied in their own repos)
> * remove SPARQLWrapper dependency:
https://github.com/RDFLib/rdflib/pull/744
<https://github.com/RDFLib/rdflib/pull/744>
>
> It's not very likely to happen very soon from my side though.
>
> Jörn should chime in himself, but I think we'd both be happy to have
> someone else come in and take more responsibility - if you want to
> help code-review PRs, discuss future changes, make releases etc. I
> would only be glad to see RDFLib be more alive!
>
> - Gunnar
>
>
> On 27 April 2018 at 04:55, Stefano Cossu <sco...@artic.edu
<javascript:>> wrote:
>> I am not sure if there is a "non-dev" group for RDFLib but I
might as well
>> start asking here.
>>
>> I find RDFLib to be an amazing project and the only RDF libray
for Python
>> (if we don't count the Redland Python bindings). Lately I have been
>> wondering how the roadmap is laid out (I understand 5.0.0 is the
next
>> release and a major overhaul) and if there is some governance
around the
>> project. Is it completely volunteer-based or is there an
institutional
>> commitment? Is there a group that works on the roadmap and
high-level goals?
>> Is there any maintenance for 4.x planned once 5.x is out?
>>
>> This would be helpful for me to understand how the project is
doing and what
>> to expect from it. As RDFLib is a fundamental library for
handling an
>> increasingly popular data format with one of the most popular
programming
>> languages, I would love to see more PRs merged, more issues
closed, more
>> questions answered, more test coverage, more exhaustive
documentation, more
>> regular commits; in short, a mature project. I may not have the
bandwidth to
>> commit to the code directly but I may be able to volunteer some
of my spare
>> time for strategic planning.
>>
>> Thanks for your great efforts so far and for any information you
may want to
>> share.
>>
>> Stefano
>>
>>
>> --
>> Stefano Cossu
>> Director of Application Services, Collections
>>
>> The Art Institute of Chicago
>> 116 S. Michigan Ave.
>> Chicago, IL 60603
>> 312-499-4026
>>
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