

Re: FPIs to URNs

From: Derek Denny-Brown <ddb@criinc.com>
Date: Wed, 04 Dec 1996 10:20:41 -0800
Message-Id: <>
To: w3c-sgml-wg@w3.org
At 10:07 AM 12/4/96 -0700, you wrote:
>Ron Daniel(forwarded by Jon Bosak) said:
>>> the N2C 
>>> CGI script [...] starts to 
>>> build a custom SOCAT on-the-fly by trolling through its huge 
>>> catalog and only returning entries that match.

I would worry about any single, central catalog, such as is being designed.
You are asking for all the name-space problems which are plaguing InterNIC
etc. currently.  How would GCA, etc. administer such a system?  Where would
the funding come from?  If you desire XML to be used in place of HTML,
expect a huge load on such a server.  A central server such as is being
talked about would quickly become a bottleneck.

I do like the idea of some method of distributed FPI name lookup, as is
being discussed, and think it would be an amazingly useful tool.  I also
believe it is worthy a discussion-group/mailing-list of its own, if that is
what is people are looking for.  An issue as complex as that should not be
the concern of the XML-wg.  We should, for now, just say that the
application (or parser?) should provide some means to lookup names, and
maybe provide some guidelines, base criteria.

The ideas being tossed around are great.  I would want them.  I just don't
think it is reasonable to demand them _right_now_.

Behavior such as Panorama where the catalog is the responsibility of the
document provider should suffice for XML-1.0.  Anything more would just make
the first applications even longer in the arriving.

"that which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal: from which it
follows   that irregularity - that is to say, the unexpected, surprise, and
    are an essential part and characteristic of beauty" - Charles Baudelaire
Received on Wednesday, 4 December 1996 13:24:00 EST
