Comparison With URLs
A URN is similar to a person's name, while a URL is like a street address. The URN defines something's identity, while the URL provides a location. Essentially, "what" vs. "where".
URNs are often compared to the ISBN system for uniquely identifying books (and in fact, it is possible to encode an ISBN as a URN). Having a book's unique identifier lets you discuss the book, such as whether you've read it, enjoyed it, etc. To actually read the book, however, you need its location (e.g., "on the bedside table"). So URNs and URLs are often complementary; for example, you might discuss an RFC using both concepts: "you can find urn:ietf:rfc:3187 (URN) over at http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3187.html (URL)."
Read more about this topic: Uniform Resource Name
Famous quotes containing the words comparison with and/or comparison:
“In everyone’s youthful dreams, philosophy is still vaguely but inseparably, and with singular truth, associated with the East, nor do after years discover its local habitation in the Western world. In comparison with the philosophers of the East, we may say that modern Europe has yet given birth to none.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment’s comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)