Re: Mailto misnamed not misdesigned (Was: Hyperlinks depend on GET (was: Re: REST and the Web))

> The mailto:  schema name was badly chosen, but the concept is
> sound as originally defined.  It was intended simply to be a space
> in which to put all the internet email addresses, which are called
> mailboxes.  A mailbox is an abstract thing, related to email messages
> by (for example)  To: From: and Cc: feilds but also used in many
> other situations.  It also normally has a relationship with the social
> entity
> -- typically a person or group --which owns it.

Hmm, well, from my perspective outside the early CERN days, I'd have to 
disagree.
Mailto has been consistently defined and implemented to mean "get a 
composition
window with the following pre-filled attributes."  I absolutely agree that 
what
we should have is a URI for a mailbox that can be placed in a form for 
defining
the action of a POST, but mailto was created before FORM was invented.

I think it is critical that we not try to redefine the semantics of 
existing
URI after they have been introduced to the Web.  If someone wants a generic
URI for mailbox, they are going to have to invent something other than 
mailto
for that purpose.   Wishful thinking is not interoperable.

....Roy