URI fragments in IVOA specifications

[Rob Seaman]

Hi Norman,

Typo in section 1.1: "fining" -> "finding".

Since the comments pertain to VOEvent, I'm copying the WG for comment.  Most of the pertinent verbiage is in sections 2.2 and 3.1.1.  Registry support for VOEvent is a near-term priority for the WG, so perhaps we can clarify usage to your satisfaction. (Perhaps an appendix to your note pending any revised text in a (much) later VOEvent v2.1.)

Since you emphasize the limited shelf life of URIs (which might have seemed to be the whole point of URIs), perhaps we should consider some other kind of permanent identifiers for VOEvent notifications.  In a strange fashion a report of a transient phenomenon has a permanency that many other archival holdings may not.  Tycho's Stella Nova has the stature of an historical document, as to a lesser degree do GCN, ATel, CBAT and MPC notices.  The refereed literature already cites IVORNs.  If there is an issue we should address it.

Rob
--

On Apr 4, 2012, at 10:44 AM, Norman Gray 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