Re: Comments on new conneg draft

• From: Koen Holtman <koen@win.tue.nl>
• Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 15:14:39 +0200 (MET DST)
• To: hardie@nasa.gov
• Cc: koen@win.tue.nl, http-wg%cuckoo.hpl.hp.com@hplb.hpl.hp.com
• Message-Id: <199609181314.PAA00722@wsooti23.win.tue.nl>

Ted Hardie:
>
>Koen writes:
>> >Section 2.2:
>> That would just define a varying resource.  Transparently negotiable
>> resources are those varying resources which use transparent content
>> negotiation.  How about this:
>> 
>>    transparently negotiable resource
>> 
>>      A resource which allows selection among multiple variants using
>>      the transparent content negotiation mechanism.  A transparently
>>      negotiable resource always has a variant list bound to it, which
>>      can be represented as an Alternates header.
>> 
>
>I think it would be useful to include somewhere in the definition that
>all of the variants are bound to a single URL; that was the change I
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>was trying to get into my replacement text.

In TCN, all variants are _not_ bound to a single URL; the variants are
bound to their own variant resource URLs.  I think I found the source
of the confusion.  I defined

 variant list 
     The list of variants bound to a transparently negotiable resource. 

but this is an ambiguous sentence.  When I wrote this I meant

     (The list of variants) bound to (a transparently negotiable resource). 

but I think you read:

     The list of (variants bound to a transparently negotiable resource). 

Here are improved definitions:

--snip--

  transparently negotiable resource
      A resource which allows selection among multiple variants using
      the transparent content negotiation mechanism.  A transparently
      negotiable resource always has a variant list bound to it, which
      can be represented as an Alternates header.

  variant list 
|    A list containing variant descriptions, which can be bound to a
|    transparently negotiable resource.

  variant description 
|    A machine-readable description of a variant resource, usually
     found in a variant list. A variant description contains the
     variant resource URI and various attributes which describe
     properties of the variant. Variant descriptions are defined in
     Section 5.

  variant resource 

     A resource from which a variant of a negotiable resource can be
|    retrieved with a simple GET request.  A variant resource usually
|    has only one representation (variant) associated with it.

--snip--

Does this work for you?

[...]
>	Thanks again for all your work on this,
>
>					Ted Hardie
>					NASA NIC

Thanks for your comments,

Koen.

Received on Wednesday, 18 September 1996 06:26:12 UTC