Support » Requests and Feedback » WP tries to show off and asks for the wrong thing…

  • First, I know this is a topic that comes up periodically, but the last time I found it specifically addressed was 2004 and no one directly addressed it even then. So please bear with me if you think you’ve heard it all before, for I’m going to try to be blunt and get to the bottom of this as I haven’t seen any other post do that yet.

    Second, Yes, I know the difference between the a URI and a URL and did the obligatory URL vs URI blog entry to prove it. The link is here http://www.thecodecave.com/?p=93, but if you know the difference between a url and URI you don’t need to visit. This isn’t a “get visitors” stunt.

    Now, to the meat of it all…

    WordPress asks for a URI when it will not accept all valid URI. Therefore it is asking for the wrong thing. The simple fact that it specifies “Address” is a clue that it only wants an URL. Beyond that my blog, like many others, has an ASIN from Alexa. Therefore, a valid formated URI for my blog is ASIN:B000F1J35C. That fits the URN specification and it for now an for ever more will uniquely identify my site even after my site has long disappeared from the web. However, can I enter that into the URI field in WordPress? No, of course not.

    You CANNOT enter a URN into those fields, because WordPress does not want any old URI. WordPress specificially wants an URL.

    It is foolish to use a fancy term that new users don’t know just it looks all fancy and technical. This is the sort of slippery slope that you have with open source projects. Bad habits are promoted when smaller projects use a bad term or code segment that is picked up in larger projects.

    WordPress should do the right thing and change the term back from URI to URL.

    • URL is the language used in most professional projects
      URL is more accurate in all WordPress use cases.
    • Some valid URIs would produce errors if entered into the URI field.
    • The term URI is not known to the general computing public.

    Can anyone provide any reasonings for using the less specific URI term other than “It’s the current fad.”? If not, I’d support the the next major release include documentation and code changes to replace URI with URL.

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