Re: Possible new issue: Things with and without identity?

>> WebDAV got that wrong.  The filesystem object at the end of a request
>> is not the resource -- it is only one representation of the resource.
>
> IMHO, it may or may not "be" the resource, but it certainly is *not* a
> representation of the resource. It may *contain* a representation of the
> resource, though.

Yes, that's what I meant.

>> WebDAV talks about it that way because, for the purpose of authoring,
>> it doesn't matter whether there is a distinction between the resource
>> and the current representation of that resource -- they become 
>> effectively
>> the same thing because WebDAV actions exist at an instant in time and
>> only work on resources that are directly authorable (one-to-one
>> relationship between representation and resource).
>
> That's news to me. Are you saying that WebDAV resources may not vary
> depending on the headers in a GET request?

A "WebDAV resource" is just an HTTP resource.  Any resource that allows
PUT cannot vary depending on the headers of a GET request, since
any such variance would be eliminated by the PUT.  However, other
resources that are derived from that resource may also be impacted by
that PUT, and those other resources may vary depending on headers.
That is the nature of content negotiation in HTTP -- the negotiable
URI is never the same as the source URI.

....Roy

Received on Tuesday, 10 September 2002 12:49:26 UTC