Re: Uncertainty on xml-dev

At 10:35 08/06/00 -0400, keshlam@us.ibm.com wrote:
> >I have a few questions.  If I use the "http:" scheme for
> >a namespace name URI, does it not imply that I should be
> >using the HyperText Transfer Protocol?  Yes?    Why or why not?
>
>The answer is "No such implication. Even with all the debate going on about
>exactly how one refers to a namespace, there is _NO_ inherent statement
>that a namespace's identity (which is still generally agreed to be a URI)
>should ever be dereferenced. Some higher-level tools may attempt to
>retrieve a resource named by the URI, for whatever reasons seem good to
>them, but the Namespace spec itself makes no promises that any data will be
>available that way, never mind what kind of data that might be. If you're
>only concerned about the namespace itself, you never have to go out onto
>the network."

This is true, but no longer the whole story, I suggest.  In a previous 
message I wrote:

>I think that TimBL and DanC believe that a common (if not the only) 
>mechanism for finding metadata about a namespace will be to dereference 
>the namespace URI. (If I'm misrepresenting them, I'm sorry, and I hope 
>they'll clarify their position).

Neither of them posted to disagree with this, so I still assume that this 
is their position.

In their vision (again, if I'm misrepresenting them, I hope they'll say 
so), some (perhaps many or most) higher level tools _will_ expect to be 
able to dereference the namespace URI in order to find out metadata.

Dan Connolly made it clear in a posting today that he expects this to be 
true of general purpose tools, such as schema validators, and not just 
applications dedicated to the processing of a particular namespace vocabulary.

I therefore submit that, at least until the dust settles, the response to 
this FAQ should be changed to something like:

"Although nothing in the namespace REC itself depends on the ability to 
dereference the namespace URI, nor on what is found there, dereferencing 
may become commonplace in the future.  You should therefore pick a URI 
which, if and when it becomes necessary, you can arrange to point to data 
specific to the namespace."
--
Cheers,
John

Received on Thursday, 8 June 2000 13:26:07 UTC