More versioning thoughts.
Andre van der Hoek (andre@bigtime.cs.colorado.edu)
Wed, 05 Jun 1996 18:42:55 -0600
After reading David's and other's thoughts on versioning in HTML, a couple of
things come to mind for me:
* It looks like different users are trying to push different capabilities.
Although expected, I think we should agree on a common `goal' for
versioning in HTTP. Are we trying to simply put versioning capabilities
in HTTP, are we trying to put *a* versioning capability in HTTP, are
we trying to seamlessly integrate versioning and non-version aware
clients/servers,etc. It looks like the group needs an objective very much;
this in itself could be an interesting exercise, because I think we
will be able to identify multiple layers of functionality that can be
built on top of eachother.
* An a start (?), to me, putting versioning into HTTP means to put
versioning
facilities into HTTP, that allow version-aware clients/servers to
implement a particular versioning strategy suitable to their needs.
Thus, capabilities like LOCK and UNLOCK are needed as predicates, but
do not necessarily need to be used. An RCS like implementation of
versioning of web-pages would use it, David's approach would not.
Identifying the facilities is a big challenge that I see the group should
get in to. So, a first start could be to start identifying the major
predicates needed to implement versioning policies (I hate to refer to
own work, but to understand where my thoughts are coming from: we at
Colorado are working on a similar approach to Configuration Management,
not specifically tied to the WWW, Jim's page contains a reference).
* Thus, I like to make a distinction between versioning in HTTP, which is
a communication protocal, and versioning of web-pages, which is a much
higher level problem. It seems like the two are getting confused in some
of the earlier messages.
Before I start rambling too much (which I probably already did), I think the
group needs to have a common set of goals, possibly layered in some
hierarchical plan of attack, as well as a clear separation between versioning
features in HTTP, and higher level issues.
Regards,
=== Andre ===