> The HTTP > specification > can only talk about those aspects of the protocol that are relevant to > HTTP.
You've just summed up, IMO, the whole issue in a nutshell. The HTTP URI is relevant only to the semantics of the HTTP protocol. And the HTTP protocol is for *access* of concrete web resources. Thus HTTP URIs are only intended to be meaningful to processes based on the HTTP protocol, which expect to *return* something. Therefore HTTP URIs are not intended to denote abstract concepts. Patrick
