[sc34wg3] Questions on N0396: (16) locators

[Murray Altheim]

Jan Algermissen wrote:
> Murray,
> 
> I agree with you. OTH, I don't fully understand how
> you think topic maps should address the URI issue.
> 
> Should we
>
> - silently ignore everything about HTTP indirection
>   and URI names vs. URI addresses

Actually, this option. As Lars Marius mentioned, we could mention
this as a problem, but I don't think we should react to it. In
general, if someone is using a URI as a name or address , they
might not even know about HTTP indirection, nor should they need
to if the server and server administrator are all working according
to plan. They should have contacted the admin and made sure the
URIs are stable for their purposes, but apart from that, whether
there's a real web page or a redirect or Cocoon generating the web 
pages, it doesn't matter. This is an application issue to be worked
out ad hoc.

> - explicitly state that TMs understand locators to
>   address information resources, leaving the burdon to
>   cope with the underlying system's specialties to the
>   user/application programmer
> 
> - recognize (as N0396 does) the idea that locators can
>   be used as names for abstract concepts and give the 
>   hint not to use them as subject addresses

I don't think necessarily that you can make this distinction, but I
specifically don't want us to get into the same ludicrous debate
that led to

    http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/NameMyth.html

leading to responses like

   http://internet.conveyor.com/RESTwiki/moin.cgi/OpacityMythsDebunked

which at least makes some sense. [No, Tim, it did not "prevent
further fruitless discussion", only created years of it...]

Murray

......................................................................
Murray Altheim                    http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/murray/
Knowledge Media Institute
The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK               .

                                                Moonlight slanting
                                                  through all the
                                                  bamboo forest...
                                                and nightingale song
                                                          -- Basho