The lost meaning of the HTTP protocol in URIs

 From the current state of affairs, the web is based on URIs. From what 
I see, this is unlikely to change and I'm cool with this, expecially 
because URIs that are general enough to indicate anything, even 
concepts that are not "locatable".

Then, please, tell me: if these concepts are not locatable, why are we 
supposed to use the HTTP protocol to indicate them?

I know, I know: in order to keep them unique using the domain name 
facilities... but ask yourself why in hell a namespace URI such as

  http://www.w3.org/1999/xslt

is not

  uri://w3.org/xslt/1.0

where:

  1) there is no misleading since the protocol clearly indicate its 
"unlocatable" status

  2) the domain-based uniqueness is maintained, no, improved, given that 
virtualhosts are not considered meaningful (there is no location taking 
place, just unique identification)

  3) version numbers are used instead of years. this makes them much 
easier to remember (you remember the version of the namespace you want 
to associate your content with, not the year that version was published 
[unless the year *is* the version, like in win95/98/2000/2003, but it's 
not the case here])

Please, tell me why this hasn't been since day one, because I'm going 
crazy on this.

--
Stefano.

Received on Sunday, 14 September 2003 06:41:16 UTC