Re: Proposition on advanced URL features (Request for comments)

Roy T. Fielding ([email protected])
Tue, 28 Nov 1995 19:43:01 -0800


> 1. The use of ## for special anchors seems reasonable.

Use of more than one "#" character is illegal and not desirable
in the current URI syntax.

We have discussed this same topic many times on the www-talk and uri
lists, and the conclusion is always the same:

1) fragment identifiers are dependent on the media type of the
entity retrieved;

2) fragment identifier syntax should be registered with the media
type registration;

3) the "=" character should be used as an indicator for a non-name
syntax, as in

#name (as in current HTML use)
#id=fred
#bytes=200-254
#words=20-24
#line=4
#chapter=14
#page=3

The only thing that prevents this right now is the uncertainty about
how to register this along with a media type, and some volunteer to
look at all the current media types and define a list of appropriate
ones for the initial registry.

...Roy T. Fielding
Department of Information & Computer Science ([email protected])
University of California, Irvine, CA 92717-3425 fax:+1(714)824-4056
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/