file: URI scheme

I've taken a look at the file: URI -01 draft [1], and find no argument with 
what it says.

I would, however, like it to say a little more about recommended practices 
when dealing with certain system-dependent filenames.  I appreciate this 
might be the start of a slippery slope, but I also feel there are some 
overwhelmingly common cases (notably MS Windows filenames) where a 
recommended correspondence between filenames and file: URIs might be 
offered, corresponding to some body of existing practice, with the goal of 
setting up a target for convergence of diverse and new implementations.

Currently, I consider two use-cases where interoperability would be really 
useful:

(1) using browsers and similar programs to access documents that are stored 
in local filestores as well as on the web.  The main requirement here is 
that relative URI references work consistently;  details of how the base 
file: URI is formed from a filename are less important for this purpose 
(e.g. file:///c:/... vs file:///C|/... on Windows systems might be chosen 
locally).

(2) writing software that uses URIs to obtain uniform access to local 
filestore and Web data.  In this case, assuming the same software is to run 
on different systems, and may exchange URIs with other such software, 
details of base URI formation are also important (e.g. use file:///c:/... 
consistently on all Windows platforms).  Ideally, but this is probably too 
much to hope for, a single mapping algorithm might be used across a range 
of different systems (I have written one for use on Windows and Linux/Unix 
systems, but at the cost of reserving some obscure file: URI forms, which 
strictly is a bug).

How might this be achieved?

I suggest a small number of (non-normative) appendices containing 
recommended filename<->URI mappings for various common systems.  The 
following is intended to give a flavour of what I think might be said, and 
to illustrate that I don't think it needs to be very extensive.

...

For Unix/Linux
--------------
filename->URI:
Assume full path from root is given. IRI is "file://" ++ the given local 
system path, with URI-escaping applied as needed (including to any '?' and 
'#' characters).

URI->filename.:
If authority is non-empty, its interpretation is system-dependent.  The URI 
path component is un-escaped and used as the local system path.

For MS-Windows
--------------
filename->URI:
If filename starts with x:... (with 'x' a letter), a leading '/' is 
added.  Convert all '\' characters to '/'.  Apply URI escaping as needed 
(including to any '?' and '#' characters).  The URI is formed by append the 
resulting string to file://

URI->filename:
If authority is non-empty, it may be interpreted as a UNC name, otherwise 
if the path component starts with /x: (with 'x' a letter), strip off the 
leading '/'.  The remaining URI path component is un-escaped and used as 
the local system path (possibly appended to the UNC component).

For MacOS, pre OS X
-------------------
[[[I don't know what the naming convention is here]]]

For MacOS, OS X and onward
--------------------------
[[[is this just the same as Unix?]]]


#g
--

[1] http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-hoffman-file-uri-01.txt




------------
Graham Klyne
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http://www.ninebynine.org/#Contact

Received on Monday, 27 September 2004 16:32:03 UTC