The WebDAV Book of Why

1 The WebDAV Book of Why

V.Alpha - 12/27/98 9:54 PM

1.1 Introduction

Over the last few years I have answered a number of questions about the
history of the WebDAV standard as well as put out several position papers
regarding what I believe we did right and wrong in WebDAV. I have collected
here the ones I like best.

Nothing said here is official, binding, normative, a standard or
representative of working group consensus. The official history of the
working group is contained in the meeting minutes, the mailing list and the
untold drafts the working group produced. The final word on all standards
issues is the RFC and failing that, working group consensus.

As a side note, I have included a brilliant posting by Jim Whitehead on the
FORK mailing list regarding the levels of HTTP Nirvana. Well worth reading
for anyone interested in the POST vs. New Method debate.

1.2 Index

1	The WebDAV Book of Why
1.1	Introduction
1.2	Index

2	A History of WebDAV's Property Design -
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/1998OctDec/0074.html

3	The DAV Property/Message Object Model -
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/1998JulSep/0044.html

4	Collections, Resourcetype and Hierarchy in WebDAV -
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/1998OctDec/0305.html
4.1	Why Did WebDAV Decide that the HTTP URL Namespace is a Hierarchy?
4.2	Why Did WebDAV Create Resource Types like the Collection Resource?
4.3	Why Did WebDAV Create the Resourcetype Property?
4.4	Why Did WebDAV Create MKCOL?
4.5	Why Did WebDAV Allow for Mixed WebDAV and Non-WebDAV Compliant
Namespaces?
4.6	Why Does WebDAV Allow for non-WebDAV Compliant Collections?
4.7	Why Does WebDAV Require Hierarchy in WebDAV Only Namespaces?
4.7.1	Client Hierarchy Requirements
4.7.2	Server Hierarchy Requirements
4.7.3	The Working Group Analysis

5	A Short History of Copy and Move -
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/1998OctDec/0300.html

6	Levels of HTTP Nirvana or POST Vs. New Methods -
http://xent.ics.uci.edu/FoRK-archive/feb98/0238.html

7	When to Use the Header vs. the Body for Method Arguments -
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/1998JulSep/0113.html

8	HTTP Design Issues, lessons from WebDAV's Property and Depth header
experiences -
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/1998OctDec/0303.html
8.1	Skipping to the End
8.1.1	Side Note
8.2	Why I Bother
8.3	This is another fine protocol you've gotten me into!
8.4	Out of our Depth

9	Ramifications of WebDAV's property design decisions -
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/1998OctDec/0302.html
9.1	Introduction
9.2	Design Principals
9.3	POST
9.4	Severability
9.5	Is it live or is it Memorex?
9.6	Schemas
9.7	Conclusion

10	XML Attributes and the WebDAV object model -
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/1998JulSep/0084.html
10.1	Dumbing Down Data Structures -
10.2	Killing Extensibility -

11	Versioning, Collections and Sources -
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/1998OctDec/0280.html

Received on Monday, 28 December 1998 02:54:47 UTC