Re: URI's for processes, stocks, file hashes, UPC's, etc..

Stan James wrote:

> we want this to be an open standard that other people can
> use without tying everything back to us.

Did you look at some of the hits you might get for a query
like "URN RFC" ?  Maybe I misunderstood your message, my
vague impression was "wheel, already invented" :-)

> file hash:
> hash://sha-1/2fd4e1c67a2d28fced849ee1bb76e7391b93eb12

You've lost me here, what's a "hash-scheme" supposed to do ?
If it's a public file it probably already has an URL.  Are
you talking about versions of a file ?

At the core of all hashes is the consideration that there
will be collisions, otherwise it's a compression, no hash.

Of course you might be able to identify areas where the
probability of a collision is less than say the immediate
end of the universe.  Such areas won't cover random files,
but e.g. what you find in RFC 2983.

Nothing's wrong with minting your own URNs, look into the
"tag" scheme for one way how to do this (RFC 4151).  And
check out RFC 4452 with its obscure "info" scheme.

> are there any suggestions for a better way to do this?

Not from me, but read BCP 115 (RFC 4395) if you haven't
done that already.  It's fresh (was RFC 2717 and 2718).

Frank

Received on Tuesday, 19 September 2006 01:25:23 UTC