RE: Resources and URIs

On 2 May 2003 at 10:55, Patrick.Stickler@nokia.com wrote:

 > > The only
 > > thing one can definitively say about a HTTP URI is what it leads to
 > > upon dereferencing, which, of course, can be a constantly changing
 > > thing.
 >
 > I disagree. The state of the resource denoted by the HTTP URI may be
 > constantly changing, such that one may never get the same
 > representation twice. But the denotation should be presumed to be
 > reasonably static.

Presumed by whom, and why?  I've been "burned" several times by
having hyperlinks in my own sites to what were relevant documents on
the Web at the time I linked them, and later finding them to go to
pornography or other annoying or irrelevant content, usually because
somebody failed to renew a domain name and it got taken by somebody
else with a completely different use.

The lack of persistent meaning for URLs is the reason why URNs were
created as another form of URI with more persistence.

--
== Dan ==
Dan's Web Tips: http://webtips.dan.info/
Dan's Domain Site: http://domains.dan.info/

Received on Monday, 5 May 2003 11:40:41 UTC