Re: Information resources?

[short answer for now at least]

> Explain again how this redirection helps.
> 
>   An attempt to GET http://xmlns.com/wordnet/2.0/Hoary_Marmot
>   returns 302 (303? 307?) http://xmlns.com/wordnet/2.0/Hoary_Marmot/about.rdf
> 
> So your SW application loads about.rdf and asserts that it is a document
> but it makes no assertions about Hoary_Marmot because it wasn't able
> to "GET" a representation for that resource?

Right.

> Does the fact that you got 30x imply something about the Hoary_Marmot?
> Why not?

Well, the text in RFC 2616 for "303 See Other" says:

   The new URI is not a substitute reference for the originally
   requested resource. The 303 response MUST NOT be cached, but the
   response to the second (redirected) request might be cacheable.

and the basic words "see other" make it pretty clear you'll be getting
a representation of something else.

It also says "This method exists primarily to allow the output of a
POST-activated script to redirect the user agent to a selected
resource." ... but I don't think excludes my use.

> If about.rdf includes <rdf:Description about=""> do the enclosed
> properties refer to Hoary_Marmot or about.rdf?

They would refer to about.rdf, according to the normal rules.   So the
RDF should be written in a position-independent form.


I should mention that "tdb:" is another reasonable indirection
approach, with its own drawbacks, of course.

Also, isn't the fatal flaw to "do nothing" the fact that you can't
possible tell whether 

   <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006251587X>
        dc:author "Tim Berners-Lee"

is true or not?   It's true if you take that to be the URI of a book,
and false if you take it to be the URI of a web page.   

     -- sandro

Received on Friday, 10 September 2004 16:20:52 UTC