Re: Version indicators (was Re: [public-webapps] Comment on Widget URI (7))

Le 22 déc. 2009 à 07:13, Robin Berjon a écrit :
> On Dec 22, 2009, at 03:42 , Larry Masinter wrote:
>> I'd be interested in your review of:
>>     http://larry.masinter.net/tag-versioning.html

[…]

>> Then single global embedded version indicator can be useful:  
>> 
>> 1. validators to know how to validate content against the intended version

[…]

>  - this document is feasibly valid for specification versions 1 through 8 through the application of the ignore-unknown rule to features (and be able to list which features would which version);
>  - this document is strictly valid from version 9 on.

What would it solve for the person writing a document?

There are two main usages for validators:
	1. Checking if you author correctly.
	2. Checking if the document respect an intended semantics.


> I think that this is probably best addressed through a must-understand flag. Sometimes I may use a new element and if you ignore it I don't care.

Sometimes spec writers change the semantics of an element, which makes it harder to create a stable environment.


> I believe that strategies to handle these (hopefully) small deltas amongst implementations (both in content and in future revisions to the specification that take the drift into account) are the same as those that make for a good versioning strategy (localised negotiation) — and again that version indicators are too crude an implement to address these.

Except content don't evolve by small deltas and then the meaning of the document might change just because implementations and spec changed. A last update date would be an indicator, but many servers butcher that too ;)

Versioning has two very different consequences if we are talking about authoring or consuming.

Received on Wednesday, 30 December 2009 16:55:22 UTC