URIs as IDs in ModSAX (was Re: ModSAX (SAX 1.1) Proposal) (fwd)

[Robb Shecter]

> From: David Megginson <david at megginson.com>
>  > Justification:
>  >      setFeature needs to be passed an identifying string that
>  >      uniquely picks out some property. Rather than go with the
>  >      pseudo-uri's in Java, it would be more in the spirit of XML
>  >      and Web to use URIs. Using URIs is also more friendly towards
>  >      non-Java implementations of the SAX API.
>
> I'm strongly inclined to agree.  Does anyone have a strong case
> against?

Hi,

I'm joining the discussion a bit late, but it seems to me that allowing something that looks
like a URL that's not a URL is a bad idea.  This seems to have introduced unnecessary
confusion into namespaces:  It makes an accompanying explanation and admonishment necessary
("Don't assume there's anything at this 'not-URL' ").  From a software engineering point of
view,  I think it'd be better to chose something that doesn't require the extra documentation
- Instead of saying, "Watch out for the problem here...", we should not create the problem in
the first place.

I think that the Java standard is very good. I don't think that it's unfriendly towards
non-Java implementations:  it is after all, only a standard, and not hardcoded into the
language.  The main problem with it is that users who do not have a measure of authority at
their organization can have problems.  So, for example, I've released some open source code
with the package name:

org.acm.robb

...because I have the e-mail address robb at acm.org.  That works until the ACM decides to put a
host named "robb" on the acm network.  (OK, that may not happen :) - but the point is valid.)

So, I'm for a clear format, maybe Java-like, that --doesn't-- resemble a URL, that solves the
above issue.

- Robb


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