[Attempto] representation of strings in ACE DRS is problematic?

[Tobias Kuhn]

Hi Ken,

On 01/20/2010 03:39 AM, Kenneth Jones wrote:
> The sentences:
>
> p:Example-String-1 is "(".
> p:Example-String-2 is ")".
> p:Example-String-3 is ",".
> p:Example-String-4 is "(,)".
>
> translate to:
>
> [A, B, C, D]
>
> predicate(A, be, named(Example-String-1), string(())-1/4
>
> predicate(B, be, named(Example-String-2), string()))-2/4
>
>
> predicate(C, be, named(Example-String-3), string((,)))-3/4
>
> predicate(D, be, named(Example-String-4), string((,)))-4/4
>
> It is difficult to parse the DRS produced by the first two translations and the translation of the third sentence is identical to the translation of the fourth sentence.

That's only true for the pretty printed version of the DRS, which should 
not be used for parsing. Use the Prolog or XML version instead. On the 
command line, this would be

   ./ape.exe -cdrs

for Prolog output, or

   ./ape.exe -cdrsxml

for XML output.

> There also seems to be no escape mechanism that would allow quotation marks to be inside strings.

Right. That's indeed a problem. A workaround could be to use e.g. double 
apostrophes instead of quotation marks. But that's not a definite 
solution, of course.


Cheers,
Tobias