Time Instants or Time Points

There is a relatively recent date-time ontology published by OMG
    (http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=911074) that
    addresses time scale granularity and also solves the problem of
    duration (is 1 month greater, equal or less than 30 days?)

    

    While LegalRuleML is not supposed to be dependent on any particular
    ontology, this work does provide a useful conceptualization that
    allows certain intervals of time to be specified with a single
    datum. For example the date 2012-10-12 corresponds to a particular
    interval of time which can be specialized to a particular 24 hr
    interval when a timezone is added. This general concept of a point
    on a time scale with a particular granularity is called "time
    point". It is more general than a "point in time" or "time instant",
    but could include that concept if the time scale is continuous.

    

    I proposed that we adopt this terminology, (but not the ontology) by
    referring to a collection of <ruleml:Time> elements as
    <lrml:TimePoints>

    

    This also avoids the unfortunate plural "Times", which could be
    confused with multiplication or repitition, while retaining
    generality regarding the granularity, if any, of the time scale.

    

    Example

    

    <lrml:TimePoints>

      <ruleml:Time key="t1"> <ruleml:Data
    xsi:type="xs:dateTime">2012-07-21T00:00:00Z</ruleml:Data>
    </ruleml:Time>

      <ruleml:Time key="t2"> <ruleml:Data
    xsi:type="xs:date">2012-07-21</ruleml:Data>
    </ruleml:Time>

    </lrml:TimePoints>

    

    Tara