On Wednesday, July 20, 2005, at 10:22 PM, A. Pagaltzis wrote:
* James Cerra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2005-07-21 05:00]:
Sjoerd Visscher,
That's because it is not an attempt at abbreviating strings,
but to preserve the meaning of relative URIs, when content is
used outside of its original context.
Same thing. You are framing the question in a manner that
hides the problem, but it's still there.
No, it frames the question in a manner that addresses the purpose
of having the mechanism.
Right--it frames it in the context created by RFC 3986. However, since
this issue is commonly misunderstood, it's likely that xml:base will
often be used for string abbreviation in the wild--thus, indeed the
problem is still there.
If anyone doubts that base URIs as defined by RFC 3986 are not intended
simply for abbreviation, read section 4.4 ("Same-Document References").
The method outlined there for recognizing same-document references
would be entirely unreliable if base URIs were used to abbreviate
arbitrary portions of URIs. It only works if the base URI is an
address from which the data containing the relative URI can be
retrieved. If base URIs are intended for abbreviation convenience,
then that section of RFC 3986 is completely broken. My impression is
that it isn't broken, but says what was intended.
...but now I've forgotten whether anyone has made a concrete suggestion
about what can be done at this point, and to solve exactly what
problem. Do I smell another note in the infamous implementers guide?
