[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: Is Resource/Representation a fruitful abstraction? (was Re

• To: Mike Champion <mc@x...>
• Subject: Re: Is Resource/Representation a fruitful abstraction? (was Re: many-to-many)
• From: Mark Baker <distobj@a...>
• Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 14:23:22 -0500
• Cc: Paul Prescod <paul@p...>, xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <oprjtjanaqezizxn@s...>; from mc@x... on Thu, Jan 30, 2003 at 10:14:37AM -0500
• References: <r01050400-1023-B3ACAA1130AA11D78F1A0003937A08C2@[192.168.124.11]> <3E330325.1050201@t...> <200301252213.28137.miles@m...> <oprjk106gwezizxn@s...> <oprjk7x4p5ezizxn@s...> <3E393280.9060506@p...> <oprjtjanaqezizxn@s...>
• User-agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i

On Thu, Jan 30, 2003 at 10:14:37AM -0500, Mike Champion wrote:
> Sure, no dispute there.  The open question for me is whether "the Web as we 
> know it" proves the concept of URL's that *locate* something or other to be 
> determined by all sorts of context, MIME types, ad hoc conventions and out 
> of band agreements ... or whether it proves the concept of URIs that 
> *identify* abstract resources with representations.  The former is  much 
> less general and abstract than the latter, and I'm skeptical of the 
> argument that the success of the less general form proves the validity of 
> the more general form.

That's reasonable, except for one thing; the more general form is
already a success.  If you've ever used a firewall, you used the more
general form, because the client didn't have to do a gethostbyname()
(i.e. treat it as a locator) on the authority component of the URI.

The only place in *any* HTTP request-response chain that treats a URI as
a locator, is the next-to-last node, because it has to locate the last
node on the network.  Every other node, including the origin server,
treats it as an identifier.

MB
-- 
Mark Baker.   Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.        http://www.markbaker.ca
Web architecture consulting, technical reports, evaluation & analysis

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Is Resource/Representation a fruitful abstraction? (wasRe: many-to-many)
    • From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>

• References:
  • Re: many-to-many
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
  • Re: many-to-many
    • From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
  • Re: many-to-many
    • From: Miles Sabin <miles@m...>
  • Is Resource/Representation a fruitful abstraction? (was Re: many-to-many)
    • From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>
  • Re: Is Resource/Representation a fruitful abstraction? (wasRe: many-to-many)
    • From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>
  • Re: Is Resource/Representation a fruitful abstraction?(was Re: many-to-many)
    • From: Paul Prescod <paul@p...>
  • Re: Is Resource/Representation a fruitful abstraction? (wasRe: many-to-many)
    • From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>

• Prev by Date: OFTOPIC: Talks by John Sowa
• Next by Date: RE: RDDL and WSDL
• Previous by thread: Re: Is Resource/Representation a fruitful abstraction? (wasRe: many-to-many)
• Next by thread: Re: Is Resource/Representation a fruitful abstraction? (wasRe: many-to-many)
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread