Re: Scientific Literature on Capabilities (was Re: CORS versus Uniform Messaging?)

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 12:04 AM, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:

> On Thu, 17 Dec 2009, Kenton Varda wrote:
> >
> > With the right capability-based infrastructure, the capability-based
> > solution would be trivial too.  We don't have this infrastructure.
> > This is a valid concern.
>
> It's not so much that we don't have one, so much as nobody is proposing
> one... I'd be happy if there was a concrete proposal on the table that
> made things as simple as CORS, supported the Web's key use cases as
> easily, and that the browser vendors were all ready to implement.
>

I hope to work on that.  A lot of it is more a question of software than
standards -- e.g. having a web server which provides easy access to
capability-based design patterns.


> > You probably also question the effect of my solution on caching, or
> > other technical issues like that.  I could explain how I'd deal with
> > them, but then you'd find finer details to complain about, and so on.
>
> If you're saying that a caps-based infrastructure would have insoluable
> problems, then that makes it a non-starter.


No, I think all the problems are solvable, but the time we might spend
debating them is unbounded.


> If not, then someone who
> thinks this is the right way to go should write up the spec on how to do
> it, and we should iterate it until all the finer details are fixed, just
> like we do with all specs.
>
>
> > I'm not sure the conversation would benefit anyone, so let's call it a
> > draw.
>
> I'm not in this to win arguments, I'm in this to improve the Web. I'd be
> more than happy to "lose" if we got something out of it that didn't have
> technical problems. If there's no concrete proposal on the table that
> makes things as simple as CORS, supports the Web's key use cases as
> easily, and that the browser vendors are all ready to implement, then the
> conversation can indeed not benefit anyone.
>
> --
> Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
> http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
> Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
>