class lookup_id :The general catalog class. The list (catalog) argument specifies pairs(Pxp_types.ext_id * resolver) list ->resolver
(xid,r)
 mapping external IDs xid to subresolvers r. The subresolver is invoked
 if an entity with the corresponding xid is to be opened.
 Note: SYSTEM IDs are simply compared literally by this class, 
 without making
 relative IDs absolute. See norm_system_id below for how to improve this.
