RE: [xml-dev] URIs harmful (was RE: [xml-dev] Article: Keeping pace with James Clark)

["Joshua Allen" <joshuaa@microsoft.com>]

Can you clarify what you see as the disjoint between "URL" and "URI"?  To me, the only difference is that one depends on DNS, and the other doesn't.  But surely you are thinking of some other issue?

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: Simon St.Laurent [mailto:simonstl@simonstl.com] 
	Sent: Fri 7/19/2002 8:59 AM 
	To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org 
	Cc: 
	Subject: [xml-dev] URIs harmful (was RE: [xml-dev] Article: Keeping pace with James Clark)
	
	

	Len Bullard wrote:
	> If you believe that, then you haven't been paying
	> attention.  This issue is the black hole of WWW
	> architecture.
	
	Hey, for once I get to agree with Len!
	
	At this point, I start to doubt the value of specifications when they
	use URIs rather than URLs.  The Identification/Location mess has been
	swirling for years, despite the claims of those on the Identification
	that everything's just dandy.
	
	Namespaces are probably the worst place where this pollyanna attitude
	has smacked XML, but their progeny, QNames, offer their own set of
	problems.
	
	URI usage is a serious red flag on specs for me, one of the first signs
	I use to figure out where something is amiss.  The philosophy behind
	URIs seems designed to ward off questions rather than promote
	interoperability, which strikes me very strange for a technology
	reportedly intended to be at the heart of Web infrastructure.
	
	If the W3C wants to sort out Web architecture, a cold hard look at URIs
	would be the first target I'd recommend.  That seems pretty unlikely
	overall, since URI supporters generally refuse to acknowledge that
	problems beyond misunderstandings exist at all.
	
	God knows I'm tired of talking about this stuff, but it never seems
	likely to be resolved.
	
	--
	Simon St.Laurent
	Ring around the content, a pocket full of brackets
	Errors, errors, all fall down!
	http://simonstl.com
	
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