Re: DOCBOOK: URI/URL markup in DocBook

[Michael Smith <smith@xml-doc.org>]

Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu> writes:

> Currently the enumerated systemitem classes include the following
> network related info:

[...]

> I have encountered a frequent need for one more:
> 
> url
> 
> Note that this is not necessarily a clickable link like the ulink
> element. Rather it is a literal URL printed in text, such as
> "Sun's home page is at
> <systemitem class="url">http://www.sun.com/</systemitem>."
> 
> I have also encountered a need to distinguish different kinds of
> non-resolvable URLs, specifically:
> 
> XML namespace URIs
> SAX feature names
> SAX property names
> JAXP feature names
> SOAP Actions
> RDDL purposes
> RDDL natures
>
> Doubtless there are others, and more are likely to be invented in the
> future. For the moment, I've been using the
> class attribute to separate these. However, I think the time has come
> to add at least a url role to systemitem, or possibly skip that step
> completely and go straight to a url element.
> 
> Questions:
> 
> 1. Do we really need a uri element? or separate url, uri, urn elements?
> 
> 2. Should this element have some sort of purpose or role attribute that
> identifies the type of the URI? For example,
> 
> <uri class="url" role="namespace">http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/XInclude</uri>
> <uri 
> class="urn">urn:publicid:%2B:IDN+example.org:DTD+XML+Bookmarks+1.0:EN:XML</uri>

During the next monthly DocBook TC telcon, the TC will discuss adding
URL/URN markup to the DocBook DTD.

So, can others on the list please comment on their needs/expectations
regarding URN/URL markup?

Specifically:

  * Would adding 'url' and 'urn' to the list of enumerated values for
    the Systemitem element be a satisfactory solution?

or

  * Do you have a need for markup that would allow you to distinguish
    between different types of URLs and URNs?

  * If you do have such a need, what kind of URLs would you need to
    distinguish from one another?

Elliotte: Please post any further comments/clarifications you might have
regarding this.

Thanks,

  --Mike