Re: Namespace consistency

>Yeah, but then you can't use the same URI for authoring as for browsing,
>in which case you might as well author via FTP.

I've been meaning to get back to this comment all week.  Using the same
URI for authoring as for browsing should not be considered an "advantage"
of WebDAV.  In fact, it isn't an advantage at all.  The real advantage
of WebDAV is that it is able to respond accurately when a user attempts
to modify a derived resource instead of the source, and is able to control
access to its namespace via an authentication mechanism that is not based
on login names.  Assuming the URI would be the same for both authoring
and retrieving of resources is contrary to good site design, wherein the
name assigned to a resource is independent of its implementation.

The Web is not a distributed file system, a fact that has a whole set
of advantages and disadvantages.  However, I'd hope that a WebDAV
capable system would not puke and die if it was given a redirect to
the source resource that happened to be an ftp URL.  I'm not saying
that clients should be required to support such authoring modes, but
there are countless reasons why it would be a good idea.

....Roy

Received on Friday, 18 September 1998 21:51:47 UTC