Re: Proposed rewrite for section 3.1

Henry S. Thompson wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Leo Sauermann writes:
>
>   
>> It is important to understand that using URIs, it is possible to
>> identify both a thing (which exists outside of the web) and a web
>> document describing the thing. For example the person Alice is
>> described on her homepage. Bob may not like the look of the homepage,
>> but fancy the person Alice. So two URIs are needed, one for Alice, one
>> for the homepage or a RDF document describing Alice. The question is
>> where to draw the line between the case where either is possible and
>> the case where only descriptions are available.
>>     
>
> Good, I like that.
>   
Me to...
>   
>> According to W3C guidelines ([AWWW], section 2.2.), we have an Web
>> document (there called information resource) if all its essential
>> characteristics can be conveyed in a message. Examples are a Web page,
>> an image or a product catalog. The URI identifies both the entity and
>> indirectly the message that conveys the characteristics.
>>     
...however, I would rather that you avoid suggesting that the URI 
identifies the (presumably, http response) message. The message is 
ephemeral, could be 'preserved' in another resource and that resource 
blessed with another URI. There is a type/token distinction here as to 
whether speaking of the messages is speaking of the occurence of a 
sequence of bits passing across a medium or all such occurences of that 
same sequence of bits; also conneg means that of an instant there are 
multiple messages that could have been returned. In general, http 
response message are without identity in the sense of an assigned URI 
with which to refer to them directly or indirectly.

I suggest that you drop the last sentence above.
>> In HTTP, a 200 response code should be sent when a Web document has
>> been accessed, a different setup is needed when publishing URIs that
>> are meant to identify entities.
>>     
>
> I think, crucially, you should end the last sentence above "are meant
> to identify entities which are _not_ Web documents".
>
>   
>> thank you for the input!
>>     
>
> You're welcome.
>
> ht
> - --
>  Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
>                      Half-time member of W3C Team
>     2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND -- (44) 131 650-4440
>             Fax: (44) 131 650-4587, e-mail: ht@inf.ed.ac.uk
>                    URL: http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/
> [mail really from me _always_ has this .sig -- mail without it is forged spam]
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (GNU/Linux)
>
> iD8DBQFH45bikjnJixAXWBoRAi3gAJ4zk7tf2EJkwhAkzk8ibiZ28PLHngCfZXeo
> BZF9cHivlpVf3eVB0wAvSWQ=
> =BrkL
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>   
Regards

Stuart Williams
--

Received on Tuesday, 25 March 2008 14:05:55 UTC