- From: Roy T. Fielding <fielding@liege.ICS.UCI.EDU>
- Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 00:12:36 -0700
- To: "David W. Morris" <dwm@shell.portal.com>
- Cc: http working group <http-wg%cuckoo.hpl.hp.com@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
>> syntax truly extensible, support automated mirroring, support URNs,
>> etc.), but I haven't considered single-site performance to be one
>> of them.
>
> I think the power of Pauls suggestion is the ability to create a
> single virtual server which is physically distributed around the
> world. Heavily used subtrees can be replicated via mechanisms outside
> of the scope of HTTP while others continue to be served from a
> central site.
Ummm, that is what the Web is -- a single virtual server which is
physically distributed around the world. You are just forgetting
that the top level in the HTTP hierarchy is the DNS name resolution
service. A fully hierachical name service, such as that proposed
by the path scheme, is certainly better -- but getting it to work
efficiently with the existing DNS (or the cost of replicating DNS
in a separate system) is non-trivial.
> By use of expiration, the real servers can change much like 800#
> associations can change on a scheduled basis.
>
> Sounds worth pursuing further to me.
Sounds like the URN problem all over again. For example, see
http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/uri/draft-ietf-uri-roy-urn-urc-00.txt
and note the similarities. I am not opposed to fixing that problem,
but I don't consider single-site performance to be a concern.
I wouldn't try to solve it in an IETF working group, regardless.
...Roy T. Fielding
Department of Information & Computer Science (fielding@ics.uci.edu)
University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3425 fax:+1(714)824-4056
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/
Received on Wednesday, 10 July 1996 00:37:10 UTC