Re: ERB discussion of public identifiers

At 09:54 PM 12/15/96 +0000, Peter Flynn wrote:
>I seem to have opened an inadvertent can of worms here, sorry. It's
>not even the precedence which concerns me, so much as making sure apps
>try the other identifier if both are provided and one fails to
>resolve. I know this is an app issue, but I do feel the spec should
>make the point that this performance is expected (trying the other),
>otherwise we risk misleading authors and users into believing that in
>providing both identifiers they are somehow improving reliability.

I think you are absolutely right, Peter. Providing both *should* improve
reliability. I would say that apps that don't try both are not doing the
Right Thing (no matter what the spec says), but maybe there are extenuating
circumstances. After all, isn't it the job of an app to use all of the
information at its disposal to try to solve the user's problems? If a line
in the spec can clarify this situation, then I certainly support it.

On the other hand, I'm surprised that Paul says that the ordering issue is
contentious. If the reader has overridden a public identifier, shouldn't
that always take precedence over the author's system id, from his machine??
What is the counter argument?

 Paul Prescod

Received on Sunday, 15 December 1996 17:04:09 UTC