Next message: Tim_Ellison@uk.ibm.com: "version control body"
From: Tim_Ellison@uk.ibm.com
To: ietf-dav-versioning@w3.org
Message-ID: <80256959.002B28A5.00@d06mta07.portsmouth.uk.ibm.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 08:51:22 +0100
Subject: Re: Naive question
Ok, so perhaps it wasn't such a naive question ...<g>
I've read the spec, and I've read the posts to this list, and I'm confused
about how to think about version selectors. They certainly seem to have
some strange characteristics. They are a real resource, but without their
own resource type (adopting the type of the resource they target, hmm, ok.
Version selectors seem to be pitched as a reference, but if I think of a
version selector as a redirector (c.f. redirect reference) the mental model
fails since the live properties of the target cannot be seen via the
version selector. Instead you see the live properties of the version
selector itself together with the dead properties of its target. This
merged view seems counterintuative to me. In this model I would expect
something like the old Target-Selector: metadata (or 'version-selector' as
jra suggested) to refer to the version selector itself, and all other
requests to be redirected.
If I think of the version selector as a copy of the version (content and
dead properties) it selects then maybe it makes a bit more sense. The live
properties were not copied so you don't see them in the version selector,
and there is no call for a 'metadata' type header. But now there is no
resource that is a version selector (it is just a copy) and the 'selector
is a reference' pitch is broken.
If someone could attempt a description of a version selector I'd appreciate
it.
Tim