';' parameter in segments

RFC 2396 defines parameters in segments of hierarchical uris.
For my own uri class hierarchy I'm having a syntactically
correct implementation, passing all tests defined in 2396,
however I am at loss to how give users of my API access to
this information. This of courses touches on semantic issues
regarding these parameters:

http://host/seg1/seg2;param
and
http://host/seg1/seg2?param

are not equal, I assume. Can/should/must both refer to the
same resource?

How do

http://host/seg1/seg2;param
and
http://host/seg1;param/seg2
and
http://host/seg1/seg2

relate to each other (if at all)?

Or, asking the other way around: What is the difference
between the following two uris:

http://host/seg1;param/seg2
and
http://host/seg1%3bparam/seg2

Is there a generic uri view on these examples or is it
merely an issue for HTTP (or whatever other hierarchical
scheme is used) to resolve?

Best Regards, Stefan

Received on Thursday, 28 February 2002 07:28:06 UTC