Re: [manifest] Define identity of a web app. (#272)

@marcosc - In https://github.com/w3c/manifest/commit/a2e8c31ecda1ca7d5673a02e08698e5cf64b5df2#commitcomment-9254539  you wrote:

>> With this current proposal, the identity of the app will change if the start URL changes (e.g. from index.php to index.html). If an already installed app had its start URL changed in the manifest, it would stop getting updates and be orphaned on the device. 

>It's identity would simply be updated to reflect the new start URL, and the manifest URL would remain the same. The application is updated from the manifest and hence, so long as the manifest can be accessed, an update can take place. 

I'm afraid that I don't fully understand your notion of identity. Why do we even need to have application identity in the manifest spec? At one point the manifest was regarded as just another resource with additional info about the app.
Application identity is hard to do right even in closed ecosystems like Android or iOS (author certs, setting up dev accounts, hosting apps in app-stores etc). Aren't we overreaching a bit when trying to define app identity for the whole web?


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