Re: Can a URN-schemed URI have a query component?

Grosso, Paul scripsit:

> Given the productions, it looks like an <NSS> could consist
> of "?type=blue;etc." (without the quotes), so again I see
> nothing in 2141 preventing a URN-schemed URI from having 
> the optional query part, but I wonder what others think.

Section 2.3.2 of 2141 says:

   RFC 1630 [2] reserves the characters "/", "?", and "#" for particular
   purposes. The URN-WG has not yet debated the applicability and
   precise semantics of those purposes as applied to URNs. Therefore,
   these characters are RESERVED for future developments.  Namespace
   developers SHOULD NOT use these characters in unencoded form, but
   rather use the appropriate %-encoding for each character.

And RFC 2119 defines SHOULD NOT thus:

4. SHOULD NOT   This phrase, or the phrase "NOT RECOMMENDED" mean that
   there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances when the
   particular behavior is acceptable or even useful, but the full
   implications should be understood and the case carefully weighed
   before implementing any behavior described with this label.

So I'd say you need some pretty strong justifications before creating
URNs with query parts.

-- 
John Cowan   cowan@ccil.org   http://ccil.org/~cowan
I must confess that I have very little notion of what [s. 4 of the British
Trade Marks Act, 1938] is intended to convey, and particularly the sentence
of 253 words, as I make them, which constitutes sub-section 1.  I doubt if
the entire statute book could be successfully searched for a sentence of
equal length which is of more fuliginous obscurity. --MacKinnon LJ, 1940

Received on Friday, 5 January 2007 16:47:12 UTC