RE: fragment identifiers and media types (was RE: XPointer considered incomprehensible)

> From: Simon St.Laurent
> 
> . . .  For a URI reference like:
> 
> http://simonstl.com/#news
> 
> The interpretation of the fragment identifier depends on the 
> media type returned.  URI philosophers will likely wave their 
> hands and say this isn't a problem. 

As a side comment, this is precisely why, in my opinion, hash URIs are
unsuitable as *general purpose* identifiers: the meaning of the URI is
tied to the media type that is returned when the racine is dereferenced.
(The racine is the part before the hash.)  I.e., the meaning of this
URI:
	http://simonstl.com/#news
depends on the media type that is returned when this other, related URI:
	http://simonstl.com/
is dereferenced.  This may be fine if one is willing to limit one's self
to certain media types, but it is not very general purpose.

Slash URIs using 303-redirects do not have this limitation.  For
example, if
	http://simonstl.com/news
does a 303 "See Other" redirect to
	http://simonstl.com/
then
	http://simonstl.com/news
could identify any resource, independent of the media type returned when
	http://simonstl.com/
is dereferenced.


David Booth, Ph.D.
HP Software
dbooth@hp.com
Phone: +1 617 629 8881

Received on Tuesday, 5 September 2006 16:55:27 UTC