Just to play devil's advocate for a minute - why could we not just
submit an I-D to change text/xml to carry one (or two) extra
parameters - 'dialect' and 'localname'. Is there any particular
advantage to creating a new header over adding parameters to that
media type? 


- JohnK


On Friday, May 9, 2003, at 20:21 US/Eastern, Mark Nottingham wrote:


<excerpt>

I think the next step is to put together an Internet-Draft (since it's

HTTP-related, the IETF is the most appropriate venue), and begin

discussion at both the W3C (TAG?) and in the IETF (http-wg list,

probably).


One important question that's bound to come up is whether to enable
this

for just XML languages, or all formats; i.e., whether it's desirable to

come up with a URI-based typing system for the Web. My inclination is
to

limit it to XML; although the registration process for media types can
be

onerous (and there are signs that it's improving, BTW), it does serve a

purpose. I don't think the community would be served well by an
explosion

of formats if there weren't a common thread (such as XML) that runs

through them.


Another issue is that which Don brings up; how to identify a specific

format. My inclination is to only use a URI, as URIs are first-class

identifiers on the Web, and anything worth identifying should have a
URI.

That having been said, there's no regular way to turn a QName into a
URI

[1], which I think is what Don wants to do. So, in the meantime, we
could

do something like

 XML-Dialect: "http://example.com/foo.xsd"; localname="Bar"

making the localname parameter optional, so that we can drop it once
the

QName mapping issue is solved to everyone's satisfaction.


This also has bearing on TAG issue 9 [2], and should be considered in
that

context.


I'll endeavor to put together a first draft and circulate it ASAP.


Cheers,



1. http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/ilist#rdfmsQnameUriMapping-6

2. http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/ilist#uriMediaType-9




</excerpt>________________________________

John Kemp<fontfamily><param>Helvetica</param><bigger>
/</bigger></fontfamily> john.kemp@earthlink.net

(+1) 413.458.9053    /    frumioj@AOL

Coordinating Editor   /   Project Liberty