Re: Information resources?

> Hmm, I think this paragraph goes too far ...
> 
> On Wed, Sep 08, 2004 at 04:30:13PM -0400, Sandro Hawke wrote:
> >    Information Resources are the only kind of resources which can have
> >    representations.  The number 1, which is not an Information
> >    Resource, might be said to be represented by the two-octet sequence
> >    0x0001, but not in the sense of "representation" used in this
> >    document.
> 
> No?  Why not?  It seems to me that it does.

What information is contained in the number 1?

> >  A web-accessible control dial, set to "1", might respond
> >    to HTTP GET requests with a representation of its state: 0x0001.
> >    In this example, 0x0001 acts an identifier for the number 1 within
> >    the data format being used.
> 
> I think it's representing, not identifying.  If it were an
> identifier, it should be a URI (or an EPR, I suppose 8-).

It could indeed be a URI, but people (eg Patrick Stickler in RDF Core
:-) argued that more compact text/bits were needed for things like
numbers.

> >  An HTTP GET of a URI for the number 1
> >    itself could meaningfully be met with an error or redirect, but not
> >    with a representation.
> 
> Gotta disagree with you there (even before pointing out that errors
> and redirects are representations 8-).

The MIME Entity (representation) carried in an error or redirect HTTP
response (in the cases where there is one, like 404) is not stated in
the spec as being a representation of the named resource, as far as I
can tell.

        -- sandro

Received on Wednesday, 8 September 2004 22:09:51 UTC