Re: file:///c:/nxdist/tut/tutorials.html or file:c:/nxdist/tut/tutorials.html?

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@xemacs.org>]

Lennart Borgman writes:

 > I found it impossible to read. I took a quick look at 3986

OK, I'll read it for you.  RFC 3986 no longer defines any URI schemes,
unlike RFC 1738 which did define the file URI (among others).  From
Section 8, they are registered with the IANA.  Looking at the IANA
registry

    http://www.iana.org/assignments/uri-schemes.html

in fact RFC 1738 still defines the file URI, as follows:

   A file URL takes the form:

       file://<host>/<path>

   where <host> is the fully qualified domain name of the system on
   which the <path> is accessible, and <path> is a hierarchical
   directory path of the form <directory>/<directory>/.../<name>.

   As a special case, <host> can be the string "localhost" or the
   empty string; this is interpreted as `the machine from which the
   URL is being interpreted'.

"file:c:/nxdist/tut/tutorials.html" doesn't satisfy this definition;
the "//" that introduces the host component may not be omitted.

Section 4.2: The ABNF shows that a relative reference does not contain
a scheme.  "file:c:/nxdist/tut/tutorials.html" doesn't satisfy this
definition, either.

Conclusion: "file:c:/nxdist/tut/tutorials.html" is not a URI.