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- From: "Hunter, David" <dhunter@Mobility.com>
- To: 'XML Dev' <xml-dev@ic.ac.uk>
- Date: Mon, 31 May 1999 13:47:47 -0400
David Megginson writes:
> Actually, that's not it. The point is that ordinary people (not just
> domain-name owners, or book publishers, etc.) need to be able to
> construct Namespace URIs, and those URIs have to be guaranteed unique,
> at least at the moment that they construct them.
>
> A very convenient (if inadequately persistent) way to accomplish that
> is to build Namespace URIs based on the URLs for Internet space to
> which people already have access rights. Access rights are based on
> protocol as well as domain and branch, so there has to be some link to
> the protocol somewhere.
>
> URLs don't have to use the HTTP protocol; I suppose that you could
> even build a namespace on a mailto:, though I'm not sure what
> it would
> look like.
>
> Some day (perhaps very soon) URNs will also become usable as Namespace
> URIs, but they're not there yet, unless you expect ordinary people to
> start registering NIDs with IANA. URNs are still missing that last
> tiny step for usability.
<snip/>
Okay, I think you've brought me over. :-) If I keep in mind what
namespaces are supposed to be FOR, which is (in a really small nutshell) to
distinguish my XML elements from yours, then we can use URLs, URNs, or
whatever other URIs you want to use. <aside>Are there any others?</aside>
Perhaps if I'm coming up with some kind of XML format for my little dinky
web site, I can use a URL to the portion of my web server that I own. (Or
use the mailto: protocol, which I kind of like.) OTOH, if a more
large-scale effort is underway to come up with some kind of conglomeration
site with XML from all kinds of sources, then maybe they can register to get
a more permanent URN.
Even that nagging phrase "inadequately persistent" isn't too bad, because if
I'm just Joe Average User, then by the time my namespace doesn't belong to
me anymore, it probably won't matter because I won't be using that namespace
anymore.
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