Re: draft-fielding-uri-rfc2396bis-03 (section 4)

Here are my comments about section 4.

4., first paragraph:

    "We define the most common forms of reference
    syntax in this specification because they impact and depend upon the
    design of the generic syntax, requiring a uniform parsing algorithm
    in order to be interpreted consistently."
    This seems to just say "We are writing this chapter because we
    are writing this spec." Also, the 'because'-'requiring'-'in order'
    cascade is long and confusing.
    Better things to say would be:
    - These are defined so that other specifications can easily
      reference them.
    - We define these to help the reader understand the spec.

    There are a lot of new terms in this section. It is not always
    clear what exactly is a term. It would be better to use some
    clear convention when a term is introduced, e.g. quotes.

    Throughout the whole section: There should be an example for
    each term.

4.1, 'validating parser': People familiar with XML might think
    they understand what we mean here by 'validating parser' and
    'non-validating parser'. But there are other readers, so we better
    define clearly what we mean here, or use other wording.

    Also, in various discussions about the use of URIs, I have heard
    people explain that any application should only check URIs as
    far as necessary, and pass things on even if they do not completely
    conform to the syntax. Larry e.g. brought this up in the context
    of the anyURI type in XML Schema. This should be said explicitly.

4.2 'network-path reference': is the full term just 'network-path reference',
    or is it 'relative network-path reference'? Same for the other two terms.

4.5 'rather than machine' -> 'rather than machines' or
     'rather than for machines' or 'rather than for machine interpretation'.

4.5 "It should be noted that such heuristics may change over time,
      particularly when new URI schemes are introduced."
    change, e.g. to
     "It should be noted that such heuristics may change over time,
      particularly if a new URI scheme should become popular."
    it's really not the introduction, but the popularity, which makes
    the difference.


Regards,    Martin.

At 19:07 03/06/06 -0700, Roy T. Fielding wrote:

>I have just submitted draft 03, which can also be obtained via
>the issues list at
>
>    http://www.apache.org/~fielding/uri/rev-2002/issues.html
>
>Please note that all issues have been fixed or closed.  If you'd
>like to raise a new issue or reopen an old one, please do so
>within the next two weeks.
>
>
>Cheers,
>
>Roy T. Fielding, Chief Scientist, Day Software
>                  2 Corporate Plaza, Suite 150
>                  Newport Beach, CA 92660-7929   fax:+1.949.644.5064
>                  (roy.fielding@day.com) <http://www.day.com/>
>
>                  Co-founder, The Apache Software Foundation
>                  (fielding@apache.org)  <http://www.apache.org/>

Received on Friday, 20 June 2003 15:50:43 UTC