Comments on "URN Services"

Some comments on the Internet Draft by Shafer (et al)
"URN Services" (draft-shafer-uri-urn-resolution-00.txt)

1 - The syntax and structure for URNs has changed !
    I was under the impression (from "Generic URN Syntax"
    internet draft) that a URN consisted of:

      naming-authority:resolution-host:opaque-string

    The new proposal seems to be:

      urc-type:resolution-host/naming-authority/opaque-string


2 - I can see the need to be able to specify a "type"
    of URC to be returned. I would prefer to see:

      urn:urc-type:naming-authority:resolution-host:opaque-string

    Each urc-type would be defined in an internet-draft like
    "Trivial URC Syntax: urc0"
    The opaque-string would point the the "full" URC of which the
    urc-type would be returned (if many types are supported by 
    the resolution service).

3 - What is the reason for a URL to URC service? It sounds
    likes a nightmare to maintain. It may even allow users
    not to ever assign a URN ?


4 - In the URN to URL service it says that a single URL should
    ultimately be returned. What if I have a URN that identifies
    the Technical Reports written by my organisation:

      urn:urcXX:x500:uri.dstc.edu.au:c=AUo=DSTCuri=TechReports

   I would like this to return a list of URLs of all our
   tech reports:

      ftp://ftp.dstc.edu.au/tech-report/resource-discovery.ps
      ftp://ftp.dstc.edu.au/tech-report/distributed-systems.ps
      ftp://ftp.dstc.edu.au/tech-report/z39.50-report.ps

   Should there be a "URN to URLS" service ?
   (This is related to point 2 above)



Cheers... Renato
__________________________________________________________________________
Dr Renato Iannella             phone:  +61 7 365 4310  fax: +61 7 365 4311
Research Data Network CRC                     www: http://www.dstc.edu.au/
DSTC Pty Ltd, Uni of Queensland, 4072, AUSTRALIA    email: ren@dstc.edu.au

Received on Tuesday, 6 June 1995 22:55:38 UTC