XRI Resolution

["Loren West" <loren.west@epokinc.com>]

Hello XRI'rs,

I am working on an open source XRI resolver, and hope to have
the project posted on SourceForge soon.  The project just started
so there isn't anything there yet, but I have hopes that there'll
be an XRI resolver working this year (2003).

This post has to do with the <IdentifierAuthority> schema in the
current XRI specification.  I have some observations and would 
like to know if I'm misunderstanding something.

It seems that the thing embodied by the <IdentifierAuthority> 
may not be an instance of an Identifier Authority as defined 
in the glossary.

It MAY be an Identifier Authority, or MAY be a local access 
endpoint, or BOTH.  It seems that when you ask for resolution, 
you're asking to resolve an XRI Segment.  What you get back is 
information about that Segment.  If the Segment represents
an Identifier Authority, you get information on how to 
communicate with it.  If the Segment represents a local
endpoint, you get information on how to communicate with
the endpoint.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, I'd like to recommend
we change <IdentifierAuthority> to something else.
ResolvedSegment, ResolvedXRI, SegmentIdentifier, or something
closer to what the instance represents.

ALSO:

If the XRI segment DOES represent an identifier authority, 
it looks like you know that by the presence of <NextAuthority>. 
When reading the definition of <NextAuthority>, it doesn't seem 
to describe the NEXT authority, it seems to describe THIS authority 
(or how to communicate with the authority represented by this
Segment).

If I understand this element correctly, it seems like it
should be labeled <IdentifierAuthority> vs. <NextAuthority>.

Example:  @foo.bar - When requesting resolution for ".foo", you
are asking "@" (the Identifier Authority for .foo).  You might 
get back the following:

<ResolvedSegment xmlns="xri:$r.s/ResolvedSegment">
    <Resolved>.foo</Resolved>
    <IdentifierAuthority>
        <URI>http://resolver.foo.com</URI>
        <URI>https://resolver.foo.com</URI>
    </IdentifierAuthority>
    <LocalAccess>
        <Service>xri:$r.a/X2R</Service>
        <Type>application/rddl+xml</Type>
        <URI>http://xri.foo.com</URI>
    </LocalAccess>
    <LocalAccess>
        <Service>xri:$r.a/X2R</Service>
        <Type>image/jpeg</Type>
        <URI>http://pictures.xri.foo.com</URI>
    </LocalAccess>
    <Mapping>xri:@:1:2:3</Mapping>
</ResolvedSegment>

I now know how to ask @foo to resolve ".bar", and I 
also know how to ask @foo to get some jpeg pictures.
@foo is both an identifier authority (for .bar) and
an endpoint for accessing resources identified by XRI.

Apologies for the long mail.  I wanted to provide enough
information to see if I understand the resolution process.

=Loren