Re: [apps-discuss] Working Group Last Call for draft-ietf-appsawg-file-scheme

[Matthew Kerwin <[e-mail]>]

On 24 November 2015 at 22:22, Graham Klyne <[e-mail]> wrote:

> All,
>
> Apologies for my late response - I missed the original last call, and
> early follow-up.
>
> I would be happy for this to go forward as-is, but I do have a couple of
> minor comments to offer (if only to prove I actually read it again!).
>
>
​Thanks, it's appreciated.​



> ...
>
> [Minor] In section 3, I'm finding the reference to "implementation" a bit
> vague (does this mean URI generators, parsers, or what?), though I suppose
> it's easy enough to figure from the context.
>
> Suggest:
>
> OLD:
> 3.  Operations on file URIs
>
>    Implementations SHOULD, at a minimum, provide a read-like operation
>    to return the contents of a file located by a file URI.  Additional
>    operations MAY be provided, such as writing to, creating, and
>    deleting files.  See the POSIX file and directory operations [POSIX]
>    for examples of standardized operations that can be performed on
>    files.
>
> NEW:
> 3.  Operations on file URIs
>
>    Implementations that provide dereferencing operations on file: URIs
>    SHOULD, at a minimum, provide a read-like operation
>    to return the contents of a file located by a file URI.  Additional
>    operations MAY be provided, such as writing to, creating, and
>    deleting files.  See the POSIX file and directory operations [POSIX]
>    for examples of standardized operations that can be performed on
>    files.
>
> (I hope it's clear that "dereference" is used here in the sense of section
> 1.2.2 of RFC3986 - https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#section-1.2.2)
>
>
​Yeah, that's a fair call. I'll take the suggested addition.​



> ...
>
> [Minor] In section 3, the text "can only be dereferenced" seems a bit
> strong - in that it appears to prohibit dereferencing lon-local file URIs.
>
> Suggest:
>
> OLD:
>    A file URI can only be dereferenced or translated to a local file
>    path if it is local.  A file URI is considered "local" if it has a
>    blank or no authority, or the authority is the special string
>    "localhost".
>
>
> NEW:
>    A file URI can be dependably dereferenced or translated to a local file
>    path only if it is local.  A file URI is considered "local" if it has a
>    blank or no authority, or the authority is the special string
>    "localhost".
>
>
​Again, yes, that's good. I think it better expresses the intent.  This is
a little different from 1738, which seemed to carry the weight of judgement
(remote files are bad, don't read them) but I don't think that's what we
want to say now.


> ...
>
> (Section 6, aside: it's really strange for me to read "HP OpenVMS Systems
> Documentation" -- but of course, it's quite correct.)
>
>
Starlet? VAX? Micro? (I used Wikipedia to look those up; to me they're just
arcane words you see from time to time in ancient manuals.)



> ...
>
> Good work!
>
> #g
> --
>
>
​Thanks!

​Cheers
-- 
  Matthew Kerwin
  http://matthew.kerwin.net.au/