Renaming utilityClass

= Introduction =

Goals/Motivation
‘utilityClass’ and ‘externalReferenceUtilityClass’ are in the strict sense not name of classes, but of meta-classes (classes of classes). The titles of these two classes are therefore not really consistent with good practices of ontology development.

= Proposed Implementation =

Renaming the two classes to ‘utilityThing’ and ‘‘externalReferenceUtilityThing’ would make the names of these classes consistent. Of course, it is debatable if such a cosmetic change warrants a de-facto change in the class structure. Probably it does not. However, it could at least serve as an example for ‘disguising’ metaclasses as classes – which could be of use for later developments of the ontology.

= Backward Compatibility =

Changing the class names (i.e. their URIs) would not do much harm, since these classes are never instantiated. Changing the class names would not necessitate a change in the data-files programs are exporting/importing.

= Notes =

Of course, it is debatable if such a cosmetic change warrants a de-facto change in the class structure. Probably it does not. However, it could at least serve as an example for ‘disguising’ metaclasses as classes – which could be of use for later developments of the ontology.

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/Discussion:Discuss this proposal.