Subject: [Tools-discuss] URN scheme for references (Re: xml.resource.org is down)

From: Nico Williams <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 May 2014 11:32:31 -0500

I'm cc'ing the rfc-interest list.  I'm no sure which list is most
appropriate for this subject.  Perhaps even apps-discuss, or ietf (to
which I don't subscribe).  IIRC we've touched on this subject on the
rfc-interest list before.

On Thu, May 22, 2014 at 8:51 AM, Carsten Bormann <[email-masked]> wrote:
> On 22 May 2014, at 15:35, Michael Richardson <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>> dogfood URNs
>
> There is this proposal to have an URN-like reference format in
>
> http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hildebrand-html-rfc-01#section-3.2.12.2

ISTM that a single URN scheme for, say, RFCs, should be used to find
any one or more of multiple resource types according to context:

 - the document itself (canonical)
 - the document itself (alternative formats, locations, ...)
 - the document's history (e.g., datatracker link)
 - bibxml reference for the document
 - bibtex reference for the document (OK, this is just an example)
 - home page of the SDO that produced the document
 - arbitrary metadata from within the document and/or from the datatracker
 - anything else?

I.e., just one URN scheme for RFCs please.  Let the thing it resolves
to depend on context or optionally specified via a fragment-like
specifier.

E.g., urn:ietf:rfc:2119 in an xml2rfc document's middle should resolve
to the anchor of a reference for RFC2119, while in a back/references
section it should refer to the bibxml reference for RFC2119, and in a
reference it should resolve to RFC2119's location (e.g., when
formatting an I-D/RFC as HTML).  But urn:ietf:rfc:2141#bibxml should
only reference the bibxml, urn:ietf:rfc:2141#docurl should resolve to
one or more URLs for the document, and so on.

Nico
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