RE: Defaule base URI for files

On Sat, 20 May 2000, Clark C. Evans wrote:

> It does seem to me that the primary hurdle now 
> is defining a 'reasonable' "default" base URI 
> for relative references.. or simply forbidding 
> relative references until <xml:base> comes along.
 
Relative URIs break whenever you want to use them
to solve more than one dimension at the same time.

Reliance on a single xml:base attribute to control
all URIs is just another step down this road, and
the more-broadly people try to apply it, the more
obvious it is that is wrong, IMO.

xml:base seems as inappropriate for namespaces as 
the document URI.  Similar things should use 
similar defaults.  An element type's identity is 
not like the location of a document instance's 
picture files, as much as xml:base would try to 
pursuade us it is.  

Reasonable software -- even Microsoft software -- 
establishes different bases for different types of 
things.  Often there is a whole dialog with a list
of where different types of things are located in
terms of a base location.  I do not see how the
web changes this requirement.

Ray Whitmer
ray@xmission.com