Internet Info 1997 December/Internet_Info_CD-ROM_Walnut_Creek_December_1997.iso/ietf/urn/urn-archives/urn-ietf.archive.9701/000034_owner-urn-ietf _Thu Jan 30 21:48:19 1997.msg

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Subject: Re: [URN] Re: Relative URLs and URNs
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 29 Jan 1997 18:54:23 MST."
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Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 18:32:03 -0800
From: "Roy T. Fielding" <[e-mail]>
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Reply-To: "Roy T. Fielding" <[e-mail]>
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> Thus spoke Keith Moore:
>
>> If we disallow unencoded '/' within URNs for now, we can always add
>> relative URNs later when we understand them better.

I couldn't disagree more.

If '/' is disallowed in URNs, then a conforming parser will reject
a URN containing '/'.  That means you will never be able to introduce
relative URNs.  Creating barriers to technology just because it isn't
understood is a mistake, particularly when the only time '/' is
meaningful for *any* URI is when it is used as a base for parsing
relative URIs.

If you aren't using relative forms, then there is no reason to encode '/'.
If you are, then you don't want '/' encoded.  There does not exist a
situation in which it is beneficial to disallow '/' in URNs.

.....Roy