queries and references (was: URIs which identify multiple resources?)

This touches on something that's been on my mind for a while.

If a query is "a string of information to be interpreted by the 
resource," isn't it the case that a URI with a query refers to a 
resource, rather than just identifies one? E.g., 
<http://www.example.com/foo?bar=baz> is a reference to the resource 
<http://www.example.com/foo>.

I.e., shouldn't the definition of URI-Reference (rather than URI) 
include not only fragments, but also queries?


On Thursday, April 4, 2002, at 01:47  PM, Mark Nottingham wrote:

>
> On Thursday, April 4, 2002, at 01:19  PM, Michael Mealling wrote:
>>
>> If it identified just the actual mailbox then you shouldn't be able to
>> specify things like a Subject since mailboxes don't have Subjects.
>> Maybe the word 'action' is wrong. Hmm... the 'message' itself?
>> I dunno how to say it exactly. But 'mailbox' isn't right either....
>
> mailto allows you to specify a subject, body, etc. in the query 
> component, which is defined by 2396 as: "...a string of information to 
> be interpreted by the resource." Considering other uses of queries, 
> this seems to fit in nicely.
>
> http://www.example.com/foo?bar=baz can identify the resource foo with 
> the argument bar=baz, and it also affects the message sent when 
> dereferencing the URI. mailto:bob@example.net?Subject=Make+Money+Now 
> can cause a message with that subject to be sent when dereferenced, but 
> it can also be used to locate a message in the mailbox.
>
> sms uses a parameter to specify a body, which seems broken. This is one 
> of the things I'll be commenting about.
>
>
--
Mark Nottingham
http://www.mnot.net/
>

Received on Thursday, 4 April 2002 17:32:57 UTC