OML : a scripting approach for manipulating ontologies

Abstract

There are different definitions for ontologies. Different knowledge areas tend to define ontologies in a different way. For computer science, an ontology can be used to describe, in a well defined and structured way, knowledge about a specific domain. These artifacts store rich information that can be reasoned about, this information can also be target of many structured processing functions. There is a diversity of programs that can be implemented to take advantage of these features and produce applications in every area of knowledge. The Ontology Manipulation Language (OML) is a Domain Specific Language (DSL) designed to describe and execute operations that reason about ontologies. These reasoning operations can be used to manipulate and maintain the current information in the ontology, infer new knowledge or concepts, or even produce any kind of side effect. OML is a simple and descriptive language, yet it is powerful enough to implement complex operations or reasoning engines in a clear and efficient way. To actually run programs written in OML a stand alone compiler is available, as well as a mechanism for embedding OML programs in a generic programming language. This allows the quick development of applications that make use of ontologies, by describing ontology related operations in wove OML snippets throughout the code. This mechanism has proven to be a very effective and clear approach for taking advantage of adopting ontologies to represent information, while maintaining the implicit advantages of using a general-goal programming language.