RE: [xri] Names for XRI URIs and URNs

[Drummond Reed <Drummond.Reed@onename.com>]

Gabe,

Great point. I absolutely agree we need clear, short names for a) URIs that
conform to the XRI syntax for URIs and b) URNs that conform to the XRI
syntax for URNs.

One suggestion that has been made is to avoid making the same terminology
mistake that "URN" originally made by calling a permanent identifier a
"name" (when in fact "name" is the term probably most commonly associated
with a reassignable identifier). 

Since the term most commonly associated with a permanent identifier is "ID",
I suggest the term "XRID" instead of "XRN".

So you'd have:

a) "XRI" for URIs that conform to the XRI syntax for URIs

b) "XRID" for URNs that conform to the XRI syntax for URNs

The only downside is that it may not be quite as intuitive to the very
technical crowd that an "XRID" is the XRI equivalent of a URN. But the
upside is that "XRID" will likely be much more intuitive to a much wider
audience in the long term as the "permanent" version of an XRI.

Others on the list, what do you think?

=Drummond 

-----Original Message-----
From: Wachob, Gabe [mailto:gwachob@visa.com]
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 3:20 PM
To: 'xri@lists.oasis-open.org'
Subject: [xri] Names for XRI URIs and URNs

Working on the requirements document, its becoming awkward to say "XRI URIs
and XRI URNs".

I'd like to adopt a nomenclature for these two sets of identifiers:

a) URIs that conform to the XRI syntax for URIs

b) URNs that conform to the XRI syntax for URNs

One might simply say "XRIs and XRNs" for a) and b) respectively.

Some have argued using these terms (with the "I" intepreted as "identifier"
and "N" interpreted as "Name" as per URI and URN) are confusing. URI's are
more like non-persistent "Names" and URNs are more like persistent "IDs".

Thats a reasonable argument, but then again, it maybe inviting an uphill
push to try to use new terminology that ISN'T derived from the URN/URI
terminology. XRN (as far as I know) is only commonly used to refer to the
XWindows newsreader (which is not so popular these days). XRI & XRN would
work nicely in emphasizing their relationship to the URI and URN dichotomy.

Other suggestions/pushback? If not, I'd like to start using this
terminology.

        -Gabe