Re: [urn] META URN namespace registration

[[e-mail]]

"Hakala, Juha E" <[e-mail]> writes:
> I have received no feedback to the heavily revised urn:meta
> registration request which I posted in March, and without further
> comments there is not much I can do.

My apologies for not attending to this sooner.

I believe that the urn:meta proposal should be approved after the
following editorial issues have been resolved:

1. At different places in the document two alternative schemes for
delimiters in the syntax are specified or used.  The alternatives are:
(a) the prefix is subdivided using colons, and separated from the
meta-string by a hyphen, and (b) the prefix is subdivided using
hyphens, and separated from the meta-string by a colon.  Instances
are:

1A. The natural-language specification of the syntax uses (a):

    Syntax:  

    The Namespace-Specific String (NSS) consists of three parts:

       o a prefix consisting of a code identifying the metadata format and
	  optional sub-namespace code(s) separated by a colon(s); 

       o a hyphen (-) as the delimiting character; and,

    a string assigned under the auspices of the format maintenance agency. 

1B. The ABNF specification of the syntax uses (b):

	meta-nss     = prefix ":" meta-string

	prefix      = format-code *( "-" subspc )
		    ; The entire prefix is case insensitive.

1C. Some examples use (a):

    (and as a default) URNs http://example.com/urn:meta:marc-<nss>

    is http://example.com/, urn:meta:marc-bd245 would be resolved by

    http://example.com/urn:meta:marc-bd245 

    is http://example.com/, urn:meta:marc-ad100 would be resolved by

    http://example.com/urn:meta:marc-ad100  

Some examples use (b):

    Namespace URN:META:MARC: contains URNs which identify the tags of

    http://example.com/, urn:meta:dc-terms:title would be resolved by

    http://example.com/urn:meta:dc-terms:title 

2. The document recommends using hyphen as an internal delimiter in
meta-string.  This does not conflict with either (a) or (b), but the
author may want to coordinate this choice with the resolution of item 1.

    Within the meta-string, it is recommended that a hyphen is used
    for separating different sections of the identifier from one
    another in order to improve the human readability of the string.

3. The text uses the term "sub-namespace" but does not define it.  It
appears to mean the same as the ABNF symbol "subspc" (which is also
nused in the text).  I think the clearest solution is to replace
"subspc" in all three locations with "sub-namespace".

       o a prefix consisting of a code identifying the metadata format and
	  optional sub-namespace code(s) separated by a colon(s); 

	prefix      = format-code *( "-" subspc )
		    ; The entire prefix is case insensitive.
	subspc      = 1*(ALPHA / DIGIT)
		    ; As assigned by the respective format maintenance agency.

    Sub-namespaces may
    be used to differentiate formats within these format families if
    necessary.

    A registrant may provide additional base URLs for
    prefixes composed of that format-code and one or more following
    subspc's.

4. Comparing this usage of the example.com URL with the others, I
believe that it was intended to end with "/":

    In this example, URNs are expressed as HTTP URIs which use
    (non-existent) URN resolver located http://example.com.

5. In this example, "<nss>" should be "<meta-string>", unless I am
completely misreading its intention:

    (and as a default) URNs http://example.com/urn:meta:marc-<nss>

Dale