Re: re-use of version URL's

On Thu, Jan 04, 2001 at 10:02:56AM -0800, Preston L. Bannister wrote:
> From: Mark A. Hale
> [snip]
> > At this time, Joe wishes to explore a synchronous and asynchronous write.
> > He decides to use version control in a temporary space in which this
> > particular server has the version URL's:
> > 
> > 	http://someWebDAVServer.com/write.c/temp/synchronous/1.0
> > 	http://someWebDAVServer.com/write.c/temp/asynchronous/1.0
> > 
> > And after time, Joe has the following:
> > 
> > 	http://someWebDAVServer.com/write.c/temp/synchronous/1.8
> > 	http://someWebDAVServer.com/write.c/temp/asynchronous/1.10
> [snip]
> 
> > At a future time, Joe may decide again to try another synchronous code
> > sample with the following version:
> > 
> > 	http://someWebDAVServer.com/write.c/ver/1.20
> > 
> > put into the following temporary space:
> > 
> > 	http://someWebDAVServer.com/write.c/temp/synchronous/1.0
> > 
> > In this case, there is a logical re-use of the same URL with a 
> > 'meaningful' URL address for use by Joe.
> > 
> > I will not argue that this is how we implement our systems but I do think
> > that the possibility for this kind of implementation should not be
> > restricted.

I think it should. It would be very easy for that system to include 1.20
into the temp space's URL. That would effectively avoid reuse.

And note that we're talking about version URLs here. They don't have to be
nice at all. All of the URLs could be formatted like:

    http://www.webdav.org/$versions/cc46d79e-d11d-b211-8658-f8d684ddefeb

Yes, the hierarchy is nice, but it is just too easy to create unique version
resource URLs.

> Say Joe sent you an email asking you to look at his working copy:
> 
> 	http://someWebDAVServer.com/write.c/temp/synchronous/1.1  
> 
> If you were a bit tardy reading your mail and Joe is working on
> the second try, you will be looking at the second attempt.
> 
> This could be quite confusing.
> 
> I suspect you don't *ever* want a versioning service that to an
> end user "sometimes" delivers the wrong version!

Exactly!

Not to mention historical recordings of the work, old web links, whatever.

Cheers,
-g

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/

Received on Thursday, 4 January 2001 13:17:39 UTC