Is a path in the Url Loading System of Cocoa always an URL, or sometimes an URI?

Question

I don't get it: An URL is something that really "locates" a ressource, i.e. it holds enough information to say "man, go here, then there, and you have it!" ...while an URI can say "the file is called foobar.foo ... have fun finding it!"

Or am I wrong? Can the URL loading system handle URI's? How would that look in example? For me it doesn't make any sense that it could handle anything other than really URLs that speficy exactly where *what* is.

Answer 1

URI's can be used to identify anything including data such as managed objects in Core Data. In that case, the URI is simply a code string that is unique to the object but doesn't provide any other information such as what address or port the database housing the object can be contacted at.

A URI is like a Social Security number. It uniquely identifies you but doesn't tell anyone where you live.