Namespace URLs (was RE: [Big-devel] big bad mother schema)

[Ben R. <be...@ca...>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: big...@li...
> [mailto:big...@li...]On Behalf Of Jim Croft


> >While it would be good to have permanent repository
> destination URLs for
> >each version, I think it would be more effective to have a simpler
> >permanent generic URL for the latest HISPID info; ie.
> >         http://www.chah.gov.au/hispid/index.html
>
> I have often wondered why people do not do this with name
> spaces - just
> have a one size fits all that gets updated...  (w3c always
> have an arcane
> url with dates and versions)...
>
> this probably only works if you keep adding stuff and do not
> take anything
> out...  I agree using the version/release should be sufficient...


The URLs I'm referring to are not for general use.  They are intended as
the source for a particular version of a particular data standard set in
XML Schema.

In the case of XML Schema, the URL we use needs to point to a *.xsd
document.  As this document eventually becomes the reference for a lot
of applications (such as XML Spy), they come to expect to find a
particular version of a schema at that location.

The URL must be unique to that schema version.

If we change this URL, we potentially break any applications making use
of the standard (because of incompatibility between versions, for
example).  This tends to annoy application developers somewhat.

Thus, we must be careful to provide a unique but guessable schema
location URL for each version of HISPID that we choose to develop in XML
Schema (or whatever comes next..).

Cheers,
Ben