Advanced Collections

In http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/1999JulSep/0019.html I
raised the issue that the advanced collection specification should be split
into three drafts. At the WebDAV meeting in OSLO the consensus of those
present (or was that just Jeff and I? =) was that the draft should be split.
While that consensus is not binding on the group I do think that it calls
for some discussion of the topic on the mailing list. As such I would like
to hear from the authors of the advanced collection specification. Do they
intend to split the draft?

Also, I haven't seen the meeting notes from Oslo posted but one thing that
was decided by Keith is that WebDAV is being shut down in 3 months. If the
advanced collection drafts aren't done by then they will have to continue as
individual submissions.

For those wondering about
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/1999JulSep/0020.html, I
found myself very frustrated in reading the advanced collection
specification. I decided that the source of my frustration was that the
WebDAV WG had failed to provide a clearly defined object model and so
advanced collections was forced to try and come up with definitions of the
part of the WebDAV object model that it was attempting to expand. In the
absence of a general model with clear language the AC draft ended up like
the blind men with the elephant. The definitions fit the part of the
elephant AC was standing in front of but was extremely difficult to
understand because it lacked the context of the whole beast.  

The object model draft is a first attempt to address this problem. I look
forward, when the object model draft is more mature, to seeing AC re-written
to use its terminology and to see Delta-V and DASL using it as well. Having
a single well defined set based object model will go a long way to ensure
that WebDAV can continue to grow but still be coherent.

		Yaron

Received on Friday, 6 August 1999 14:44:37 UTC