Re: Does a URI identify a "web page"?

On Monday, Jan 27, 2003, at 16:42 US/Eastern, Tim Bray wrote:

> Tim Berners-Lee wrote:
>
> Summary: TimBL and I each have world views that are self-consistent 
> but have failed to convince each other.  It seems unlikely that 
> consensus is going to arise on this issue, so I'm not going to say 
> anything else after today until I hear a genuinely new argument, which 
> I haven't for some weeks now.

(The rest of your message, here elided,  down to  "====" seems to be 
based on a misunderstanding of the term "network information object" in 
HTTP. It is what you call "abstract resource", I think, so arguing that 
a URI identifies one or the other makes no sense. I think you have
a consistent model with Roy's and with mine, but you attach different 
meanings to the terms we use.)

[...]

> =====================================================
>
> The test of any scientific theory is how well it explains reality.

Agreed.

>   The pure REST approach which talks about resources and 
> representations explains both of my use cases straightforwardly and 
> allows the construction of software with appropriate expectations.

For that software, my interpretation of REST and Roy's serve equally 
well.

[..]

> Fortunately, we agree on the best practices (ambiguity is bad, etc) so 
> it is now long past time to put HTTPRange-14 on a shelf and not invest 
> any more irreplaceable time in it. -Tim

The RDF core group and I and certain others seem to agree on best 
practices for RDF
identifiers, and as RDF provides the only test cases where URIs are used
to identify arbitrary things, I suppose that will stand in practice.   
It may well be that
philosophical discussion which is not base on test cases will as you say
just waste of time.
-Tim

PS: In another message I have responded to Roy and Mark with a test 
case.

Received on Tuesday, 28 January 2003 22:02:09 UTC