file:/ vs file://<host>/ vs file:///

[Avery Pennarun]

On Thu, Nov 04, 2004 at 12:59:14PM -0500, Daniel Veillard wrote:

> > file:/foo == file://localhost/foo
> > 
> > Everybody already knows this.
> 
>   it's not in any spec, sorry ...

While that is assuredly the case, it doesn't change the fact that everybody
already knows this.

> > We can argue semantics forever, but any
> > standards organization who defines file:/foo as *anything* else is obviously
> > completely out to lunch and should be ignored.
> 
>   Before XML everybody though that markup was case insensitive, and got
> proved wrong ...

?? I don't understand.  They all thought that HTML and SGML markup was case
insensitive, and were thoroughly correct.  XML is a new language with new
rules.  The XML spec didn't change HTML (XHTML, a new language,
notwithstanding).  It merely added new meaning and left us with good
backwards compatibility.

Similarly, everybody knows what file:/etc/passwd means.  That does not
prevent file:///etc/passwd or file://localhost/etc/passwd from meaning the
same thing, if that's what your spec wants.  However, a spec should not
prevent *old*, well-known meanings from working fine.

>   do like Mozilla does file:///etc/hosts , like 2396 suggests

Mozilla accepts file:/etc/hosts as valid input.

Have fun,

Avery