RE: xlxp-dev: Resources or local resources?

At 01:18 PM 07/15/2000 -0400, Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote replying to David 
Orchard <orchard@pacificspirit.com>):
>>...The particular reason
>>that I like the term resource is because of the connection between
>>resources, locators and Uniform Resource Locators.  The goal of an arc is to
>>connect resources together.  Locator elements and URL attributes are simply
>>references to resources.  I very much like the notion of locator elements
>>containing URLs attributes when the resource is remote, and a resource
>>elements when the resource is local.
>>
>>So a local resource can be referenced directly without the intermediary
>>"handle" that we have encoded as a locator - effectively a pointer.  Or
>>resources can be referenced indirectly through a locator.  Note that local
>>resources could be treated as remote through the use of a locator element to
>>the resource element!  We simply gave a shortcut to that common case.
>
>Thanks Dave! I now understand where these names come from. However, this 
>was all totally inobvious from the spec itself and the attribute names 
>chosen. I still think this is going to really confuse people and we need 
>more obvious names.

I'm with ERH on this one. The problem begins early in the spec, with this 
definition:
         An XLink link is an explicit relationship between
         resources or portions of resources.
With only minor changes, that definition has persisted in all versions of 
the spec through the current one. And for good reason: it's perfectly lucid.

A few sentences later, we see this:
         As discussed in [IETF RFC 2396], a resource is any
         addressable unit of information or service.
Again, that seems inarguable.

Whatever the historic and/or theoretical and/or philosophical reasons for 
the resources-vs-locators decision, the choice doesn't bear up under any 
common-sense standard.

================================================================
John E. Simpson          | "I replaced the headlights in my car
http://www.flixml.org    | with strobe lights, so it looks like
simpson@polaris.net      | I'm the only one moving." (Steven Wright)

Received on Saturday, 15 July 2000 14:52:21 UTC