On Thu, 14 Jul 2005, S.Woodside wrote:
> Not so. The URL specification defines a limited character set and
> format for all URLs. So if I want to add extensions later (which I
> won't, but...) I can simply use a non-URL character at the beginning.
>
> For example, # is not a valid character to use in a domain name. So, if
> I see a semacode containing "#" at the beginning, I know that this is
> not a URL, and I can then create a whole extension/versioning system
> based on semacodes with # at the start are treated specially.
Ah! Of course. So that problem is solved, then.
You might consider defining this format sooner, rather than later, so that
others can start experimenting right away. Maybe use an Internet-protocol
like thing:
Start it with #c#t#v# where c is a company ID, t is a type ID, and v is
a version ID. You could be the central registry for companies, and the
rest is defined by the company. So, for example, '#0#17#1#' might be
the header code for vcards, 0 being the company ID for Semacode, 17 for
vcard, 1 the version number.
And define '0' to be the experimental company ID which is
guaranteed never to be assigned.
Having a standard like this in place would put you ahead of the current
QR-code mess in Japan, where if you did make a reader that read multiple
formats, you'd have to use hueristics and such to actually read the darn
data.
> Ahh, but it's not so simple. My personal vCard contains 501 characters.
> The QR Code for that comes out, well, it's not small.
Indeed. If that's the case, you could have a URL link instead. But one
person's varcard being too big is not a good reason for disallowing
vcards to be directly encoded for everyone.
>> A URL can *address* any kind of information, but there's no standard
>> for making it *contain* any kind of information.
>
> That's exactly what I said.
Right. So do you agree that, with QR Code currently able to address
and contain information, and Semacode currently able only to address
information, the QR Code format is currently more flexible?
> Any of them. The data charges are a bugbear. The data charge in
> download a 1K or 10K vCard is inconsequential.
Maybe where you are. In Japan that could easily be 3 to 30 yen in
charges.
> Why would you be using cool QR Code technology if you're not willing
> to pay for a few tiny downloads?
Because you're not a geek.
Basically, it's all about options. You can't do everything DoCoMo can
do, but DoCoMo can do everything that you can do.
Fortunately, as you pointed out, this is easily fixed, and you're in the
perfect position to fix it and even make it better than what DoCoMo has.
cjs
--
Curt Sampson <cjs@cynic.net> +81 90 7737 2974
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Received on Thu Jul 14 11:03:05 2005