"Document" vs. "Resource" (was RE: namespaceDocument-8 and nsMedi aType-3)

> From: Christopher Ferris [mailto:chris.ferris@sun.com]

<snip/>

> I think that this is all related to the question:
> is a "resource" a "document" or is it an abstraction?

I think this use of the term "document" is muddling things a bit. I'd like
to suggest that the TAG either drop this term and conduct discussions based
on already defined terminology (such as "resource"), or clearly define what
is meant by "document" in terms of already defined terminology. The
discussions of "documents on the web" seems a bit retrograde to me compared
with discussions of resources; without clarification, it may promote a
misguided vision of the web in terms of resources being static documents
that get served up on demand (which is already the prevailing notion in the
mainstream web development community), rather than the far richer vision of
resources as abstractions for which state representations may be conveyed
(as documents).

I'd suggest that the notion of "document" be explicitly related to REST's
notion of state representations so that "document" does not get confused
with "resource".

Received on Thursday, 4 April 2002 17:28:44 UTC