On 2/2/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Martin Atkins</b> <<a href="mailto:mart@degeneration.co.uk">mart@degeneration.co.uk</a>> wrote:<div><span class="gmail_quote"></span><div>> For one thing, it's a lot easier to remember strings like
<br>> openid.server or openid2.provider than something like<br>> <a href="http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/provider">http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/provider</a><br>Martin is undoubtedly correct in saying that short strings may be more memorable than URIs, however, I think it is fair to point out that these strings need only be "remembered" very infrequently. Human beings don't get exposed to the strings very frequently. Other than the one-time lookup needed when you're actually writing some OpenID code, the only other time you're likely to even see the strings is when you're doing some debugging. Thus, I would suggest that the problem of memorability is really relatively minor compared to just about any other benefit that might be suggested. I think the semantic web folk would probably agree with this reasoning as well...
<br><br>In any case, if the URI is something like "<a href="http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/provider">http://specs.openid.net/auth/2.0/provider</a>", the bulk of that URI is actually a fairly easy to remember invariant prefix. Thus, to "one skilled in the art" it is actually only marginally less memorable than a semantically equivalent short string.
<br><br>bob wyman<br><br></div></div><br>