URI References and context of use

XML Schema is gathering requirements for 1.1.

Question: should a new type be considered, in order to distinguish URIs
used as identifiers from those used as locators?

In other words - these are very different elements:
   <foo type="xsd:integer">0123</foo>
   <foo type="xsd:string">0123</foo>
and it's clear what's going on. However, schema has no way to distinguish
URIs that are used as identifiers (e.g., in namespaces) from those that
are to be used to locate (dereference).

It strikes me that this would be useful*, because other specifications
could use this mechanism to clearly communicate what the context of the
URI is. It would also give guidelines to canonicalization, comparison,
etc.

Regards,


*this assumes that the 'what are URIs' wars conclude in our lifetimes, of
course...

--
Mark Nottingham

Received on Sunday, 26 January 2003 02:32:42 UTC