[tei-council] TEI web page URL

[Syd Bauman]

Gawk! What tangled web we've woven.

1) The type of data stored in a file and its name are completely
   different things. Thus the idea of identifying the type of data
   stored in a file by part of its name (commonly called its
   "extension") is, well, bad. But it is what we do, almost
   ubiquitously[1].

2) So given that the defacto file-system standard is to record the
   type of data stored in a file in the last bit of its name, I'm
   completely sympathetic with Tom's point of view.

3) HOWEVER, on the web it has been commonplace for years now to have
   in the URL the source file that you ask the server for, rather
   than the type of data that the server returns in the URL (some of
   that information is stored elsewhere in the HTTP header stuff).

4) SO, while I understand Tom's frustration, I don't think we're
   doing anything wrong, we're just an example of how the whole
   system is kinda broken.


Notes
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[1] Apple, in their original Mac OS, did it right. They separated the
    type of data stored in a file from its name; the type of data was
    stored as a completely separate bit of metadata. Although some
    might argue this way & that about the format of their metadata,
    it was the better way to go. But with the advent of their new Mac
    OS X, Apple did not take the high road, which would have been to
    continue to separate the type of file from the name; nor did they
    take the "can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach, and completely
    switch to the Unix name-extension convention. No, they now have
    an icky hybrid of both approaches. Sigh.