URI fragments in IVOA specifications

[Dick Shaw]

Dear Norman,

I have to applaud your effort to describe problems associated with proper 
usage of URI fragments. Your knowledge of the applicable standards in this 
area vastly exceeds mine, but perhaps you will consider the following remarks 
to be helpful.

1. Though I understand your original motivation, to correct what you see as a 
problem with how URI fragments are used in practice, I think I would re-cast 
the content of your document more positively. That is, make the emphasis on 
best practices for usage of URIs in the IVOA context. Certainly there is a 
place for discussing caveats, but many potential readers will benefit more by 
seeing examples of proper usage than be being admonished about improper usage.

2. Consider making the content more approachable to those with lesser 
knowledge of the standards. The current text has very much the flavor of 
proving that certain usage may be wrong. That's not exactly a flaw, but the 
current reference list of supporting material is highly technical, and 
oriented to the expert. Perhaps this is why bad usage has cropped up in the 
first place. An introductory paragraph explaining the basic concepts (and 
perhaps references to tutorial material, if it exists) would be helpful for 
understanding the basics of URIs.

3. Provide examples within IVOA where the URI usage is both proper and 
illustrative of best practices (I assume there are some).

Congratulations for ending with recommendations for how new or existing IVOA 
standards can be improved w.r.t. URI usage. This is a path to a better world.

Regards,
Dick

On Wed, 4 Apr 2012 18:44:27 +0100
  Norman Gray <norman at astro.gla.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> Greetings, again.
> 
> On 2012 Apr 4, at 14:05, Norman Gray wrote:
> 
>> Shortly before the Pune interop, I raised a question about the use (or 
>>arguably misuse) of URI fragments (the bits after the '#') in IVOA 
>>specifications.  I gave a short presentation to the TCG at Pune, and was left 
>>with an action to write something about this before the next interop.
>> 
>> I've duly done that, and put a short draft Note at
>> 
>>    http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/norman/temp/uri-fragments.html
>> 
>> I propose some discussion of this on-list, with a view to preparing a final 
>>version for some sort of ratification (I hope) at Urbana.  I expect that it 
>>would be reasonable for this to remain a Note rather than anything more 
>>formal, but since I think the conclusions here should have some normative 
>>force on future recommendations, I wouldn't disagree if people think it 
>>should be promoted somehow.
> 
> As a result of (off-list) comments from Guy Rixon, Mark Taylor and Markus 
>Demleitner, I've made some adjustments to the text, and put up a v0.2 at the 
>same URI.
> 
> Thanks, Guy, Mark and Markus.  I'm very interested to hear further comments, 
>on-list or off.
> 
> Best wishes,
> Norman
> 
> -- 
> Norman Gray  :  http://nxg.me.uk
> SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, UK

#---
Dr. Richard A. Shaw, Scientist
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
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520-318-8398
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