How will the proliferation of micro-devices affect what can be re quired by specs?

> Mark B. wrote
> 
> The argument for having a transform that is "just" XPath is that it will
> be
> much simpler to implement XPath than to implement XSLT.  But I don't
> expect
> anybody to be implementing XPath or XSLT just for digital signatures.  I
> expect in the (vast?) majority of cases people will be using a third-party
> XSL library, even just for XPath, since (I get the impression) XSL is in
> large part the motivation for XPath.  Most implementations of XPointer
> will
> be part of an XSL implementation.
> 
> I admit that much of the preceding paragraph is merely my personal
> impressions; I would like to hear what other people think.  I think that
> many of the people who object to extra "weight" in the spec won't be using
> XPath or XSLT, and so for this issue the "weight" argument carries less,
> umm, weight.
> 
> Personally, I'm a big fan of XSLT.  In my dream world, I would like to see
> it
> widely supported in implementations claiming to do XML Signatures.
> 
> However, in the practical world, I have to live with resource constraints.
> Though I hope, and even expect, XSLT to become ubiquitous in PC-based
> XML environments in the near future, I don't have the same confidence wrt
> micro-devices like PDAs and hand-held PCs.  I expect it will be at least a
> couple of years before we see XSLT processing on these devices.
> Recently I heard that by 2002/2003, these
> micro-devices will be used more often than PCs
> for connecting to the Internet. 
> Many of these micro-device applications would likely
> find XML Signatures particularly useful (eg.
> stock trading) so it seems to me we cannot ignore them as we think
> about what features are required and which are not.
> 
> How much should specifications like XML Signature be influenced by the
> needs of the new generation of resource-constrained devices.   Should
> we have two categories of conformance: one for micro-devices and one
> for "regular" size systems?  For example, one could make XSLT REQUIRED
> for "regular" environments but DISALLOWED for "micro" environments.
> Frankly, I'd prefer not to go this route but I'm wondering if the
> proliferation of PDA-like devices will force it.
> 
> Your comments please.
> 
> Regards, Ed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------------
> Ed Simon
> Software Engineer, Entrust Technologies
> email:  ed.simon@entrust.com
> ph: (613) 247-2583
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------------
> 
> 
>

Received on Monday, 1 November 1999 12:37:59 UTC