RE: [ACL] Principal Identity

> I feel that interoperability means that existing clients will
> continue to work "as well as possible" with the new definition of
> ALLPROP.  Since ALLPROP originally meant "all properties," and the
> objection has been "that can be too expensive for servers," I think
> the compromise is to have ALLPROP mean "as many of the defined
> properties as the server feels it's reasonable to compute."
You have a very good point - existing clients will expect to see dead
properties.

> I think Geoff's suggestion (DAV live props and all dead ones) is a
> good guideline for servers, both because these properties are
> presumably cheap and because an existing client who just set a dead
> property is likely to be very surprised when ALLPROP doesn't return
> it.  I suggested adding "at least" because I think that gives servers
> the proper control over just how interoperable they want to be with
> old clients.
However, although that proposal supports existing clients better, it isn't
clearly defined, as I explained in a previous email today.

> Probably the place you and I really agree is that we'd both rather
> see ALLPROP go away entirely :^).  But I think we also agree that
> such a move would be too backward-incompatible.
It's clear new clients must not expect allprop to mean all properties, but
we also agree that old clients must be able to operate.  However if we can't
define a clear behaviour for allprop or some replacement, then perhaps we
should simply discourage use of allprop in revised 2518.

Lisa

Received on Wednesday, 21 November 2001 21:53:56 UTC