[sc34wg3] Subject Locators

[Lars Marius Garshol]

* Patrick Durusau
|
| Reasoning that as Fielding makes clear in his dissertation the REST
| model (see section 5.2.1.2 Representations, 6.2 REST Applied to URI,
| 6.2.1 Redifinition of Resource, and 6.2.1 Manipulating Shadows)
| relies upon the notion that only a representation of the resource is
| ever returned.
| 
| From your post, "resolving a subject locator returns the subject
| itself..." I read you as taking a different tack. Is that correct?

Well, not really. A URI identifies a resource, which may or may not be
an information resource. In any case, according to REST, what comes
back when dereferencing it is a representation of the resource. In
some cases the representation *is* the resource (though RESTafarians
might want to argue this); in other cases, the resource is something
other than the representation of it.

TMDM basically lets you say whether it is the representation or the
resource you are referencing. (Whether there are cases where the two
are one and the same is not something TMDM gets involved in.)

  subject locator: I'm referencing the representation of the resource

  subject identifier: I'm referencing the ineffable resource itself,
                      and not its representation

So I think this works whether you subscribe to REST or go by the
web-as-it-always-was view.

-- 
Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopian         <URL: http://www.ontopia.net >
GSM: +47 98 21 55 50                  <URL: http://www.garshol.priv.no >