Re: Proposed URI classes

[John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>]

David Leland wrote:
> 
> John Cowan wrote
>
> >"map" maps public IDs to URIs.  "remap" maps URIs to other URIs.
>
> What is the semantical value of having the mapping lhs public id
> and rhs uri, and both sides uri, being called differently?

I'm not in love with this scheme, it's just that it's what I documented
way back when:  see http://www.ccil.org/XML.

> To that end, I propose that calling all mappings with the name "map"
> serves our purposes better than having the suggested use of "remap"
> appear in our resulting lexicon.

Sounds fine to me.  (The public-to-system mapping is the one I care about
most, anyway.)

Here are my current ideas for the URI classes:

I accept that using the GI to indicate the mapping type is better than
using an attribute.  However, I think we ought to consitute ourselves
(or some successor) a registrar for the xmlcat: namespace, allowing
people to register "significant" mapping types in it.

My objection to requiring mappings (other than a small fixed set) to be
done via extension namespaces is that it becomes impossible to tell
the difference between a foreign *mapping* and a foreign *whatsit*.
It should at least be possible when reading a catalog to detect that
there is a mapping here, even if you don't know what it's meant to be
used for.

Another possibility is to create xmlcat:source and xmlcat:target
attributes (so-called "global attributes") for use by foreign mappings.
Any element containing these attributes is a foreign mapping.  Elements
belonging to foreign namespaces that don't contain them are not mappings.

Finally, I still think it is a good idea to allow default mappings.
If a catalog is asked for a mapping of a specified type (system, namespace,
etc.) and there is no relevant entry, use the default mapping instead.

-- 
There is / one art                   || John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>
no more / no less                    || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things                   || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness                 \\ -- Piet Hein