Re: I-D ACTION:draft-daigle-uri-std-00.txt (nouns)

At 01:52 PM 9/7/00 -0500, Dan Connolly wrote:
[...]
> > What does a noun represent?
> >
> > This is not a facile question.  I think answers to that question may be
> > illuminating.
> >
> > I suggest that a URI serves the same purpose in web architecture that a
> > noun serves in the architecture of most human languages.
>
>Quite.
>
>(Masinter makes a similar point in his
>message of Thu, 22 Jun 2000 08:53:05 -0700
>http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/xml-uri/2000Jun/0817.html )

I missed that (or forgot it).  These are the sort of points I was trying to 
approach.

>Is that the sort of thing that we should add
>to RFC2396 (i.e. a revision of it or
>whatever)? Would that help?
>
>It has very little bearing on how one should
>construct software to deal with URIs, but
>it might help with understanding.

Well, I think this debate is all about understanding.  It probably has very 
little bearing on (immediate) problems of software construction.

[...]
>Larry Masinter made some half-joke a while
>back about an intro-to-philosophy being
>a pre-requisite to URI discussions. Maybe
>it's not such a joke after all? Maybe
>it's worth putting in the spec?

I remember that.  I didn't think he was even half-joking.  I feel slightly 
ashamed that I didn't have time to properly digest the references he offered.


>Ah... there it is:
>
>Philosphy 101
>Mon, 5 Jun 2000 09:05:31 -0700
>mid:NDBBKEBDLFENBJCGFOIJEEAGCNAA.masinter@attlabs.att.com
>http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/xml-uri/2000Jun/0227.html

[...]

>Is that what's called for? re-hashing
>all the stuff about definite descriptions,
>morning-star/evening-star stuff, and all that?

Maybe not re-hashing, but being able to reference some standard texts to 
help bring people up to a common understanding seems a worthwhile acjievement.

#g

------------
Graham Klyne
(GK@ACM.ORG)

Received on Thursday, 7 September 2000 17:24:52 UTC