Simpler SPARQL Results

SPARQL Results have two different, distinct and unnecessary ways of doings query results - one for SPARQL SELECT and one for SPARQL ASK (the whole SELECT vs ASK is worth pursuing too).

The section of a SPARQL SELECT XML result looks like:

...
  <results>
    <result>
      <binding name="x"> ... </binding>
      <binding name="hpage"> ... </binding>
    </result>
...

An ASK result looks like:

...
  <boolean>true</boolean>
...

The with the value inside the boolean either true or false (or possibly fred - depending on how you parse it - it would be nice to have an XSD). One set of results live in a results/result/binding and the other in a boolean. A simpler way to do it is just to use the absence or presence of a binding within the results/result.

For true:

  <results>
    <result>
      <binding/>
    </result>
  </results>

For false:

...
  <results>
    <result/>
  </results>
...

The JSON looks pretty much the same:

{
...
  bindings : [{}] // true
  bindings : []   // false
}

No parsing of true or false or having special cases for code producing or consuming SPARQL different kinds of answers.