Moratorium proposal

Seeing the XLink CR come in with its underspecified approach to URI
identifiers for semantics has raised a lot of concerns.

I'd like to propose that the W3C impose a moratorium on specifications
using URIs and URI references for identification except in cases where
retrieval is both expected and specified, and where the type of resource
identified by the URI or URI reference is specified as well.

There isn't very much common understanding of URIs _as identifiers_, and
recent W3C moves to put schemas at namespace URIs and this latest move in
XLink appear to cloud matters further.

Specifications that identify the type of resources that may be present at
that URI location can proceed as usual.  XML 1.0 already does this, for
example, in its external parsed and parameter entities, and puts unparsed
entities into a special (and rarely-used) class.

Specifications that want to use URIs as identifiers may do so by providing
a formal description of the resource type to which the URIs apply, and
identifying clearly how those resources are to be used/ignored/discarded by
applications.  If the information present in the entity body of that
resource is to be considered significant in any way, that significance must
be spelled out.

Alternatively, the W3C could formally specify what URIs _mean_ in general,
and how applications should deal with them when used in particular
(semantic) contexts.  Saying "it's a resource" is not enough.

For namespaces, it's too late, and some kind of formal cleanup describing
those URIs and what they might represent (if anything) is necessary.

Yes, I understand that this may feel like a horrible set of constraints to
a sizable group of people who like URIs in their present state.  On the
other hand, it will go a long way toward making XML tools work as expected,
by giving us only as much rope as we need to hang ourselves, and not
everyone else on the Web as well.

Simon St.Laurent
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
http://www.simonstl.com - XML essays and books

Received on Saturday, 8 July 2000 08:49:39 UTC