RE: Interoperability event?

>> > 3. Organizing an interoperability event
>> 
>> Why? I know bake offs are popular but WebDAV seems to have been
>> having a continual back off for months now just by having folks put
>> their implementations on the net. Unless I have seriously missed
>> something it seems to work damn well.

jw> While it's true there have been lots of good experiences testing
jw> clients and servers over the net, with each server having a test
jw> location at a known address, these tests have been limited in some
jw> ways.  Existing clients don't test the full range of capabilities
jw> of WebDAV -- none use PROPPATCH, and Depth locking is not used
jw> either.  So, one purpose of such an event would be to do more
jw> thorough compiance testing, as well as just interoperability.
jw> But, still, this could potentially be done remotely.

Another important purpose of a bake-off, whether held in a single
location or done over a wide area, is to get demonstrable buy-in from
the purveyors of clients and servers.  In the context of a mailing
list, it's just too easy for someone to Keep-Their-Mouth-Shut when
problems with a particular implementation are mentioned.  If that
happens in the context of a bake-off, the silence or non-participation
can in and of itself be interpreted as a statement of intent.  It's
both a cultural and a process difference.

This is not a hypothetical problem for WebDAV.
-- 
bill@carpenter.ORG   (WJCarpenter)           PGP
bill@bubblegum.net                    0x91865119
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Received on Friday, 24 September 1999 15:46:32 UTC