RFC 1736 (rfc1736) - Page 2 of 10

Functional Recommendations for Internet Resource Locators

RFC 1736                Recommendations for IRLs           February 1995


   behalf in a relatively transparent way.  Without such a method,
   transparent and widely distributed, open information access on the
   Internet would be difficult if not impossible.

2.1 Defining the General Resource Locator

   The requirements listed in this document impose restrictions on the
   general resource locator.  To better understand what the Internet
   resource locator is, the following general locator definition
   provides some contrast.

        Definition:  A general resource locator is an object
                     that describes the location of a resource.

   This definition deliberately allows many degrees of freedom in order
   to contain the furthest reaches of the wide-ranging debate on
   resource location standards.  Vast as it is, this problem space is a
   useful backdrop for discussion of the requirements (later) that
   generate a smaller, more manageable problem space.  A resource
   location standard shrinks the space again by applying additional
   requirements.

   Consider the definition in four parts: (1) A general resource locator
   is an object (2) that describes (3) the location of (4) a resource.

2.1.1.  A general resource locator is an object...

   The object could be a complex data structure.  It could be a
   contiguous sequence of bytes.  It could be a pair of latitude-
   longitude coordinates, or a three-color road map printed on paper.
   It could be a sequence of characters that are capable of being
   printed on paper.

2.1.2.  ...that describes

   In the fully general case, there are many ways that a resource
   locator could describe the location.  It could employ a graphical or
   natural language description.  It could be heavily encoded or
   compressed.  It could be lightly encoded and readily understandable
   by human beings.  The description could be a multi-level hierarchy
   with common semantics at each level.  It could be a multi-level
   hierarchy with common semantics at only the first two levels, where
   semantics below the second level depend on the value given at the
   first level.  These are just a few possibilities.







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