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Subject: Re: [Openxri-users] [xri] Proposed draft text for WD11 introducingthe authority graph model. [Was Thoughts about XRI aliases.]



For those four aliases, there simply is no "absolute identity". It's just an internal behavior of OpenXRI. Technically speaking, the four i-names share the same database rows, that's all. There can be 1000 other XRIs out there that also resolve to www.inames.net or even have the same SEP set as my four i-names, and I would still not consider them "aliases" under my OpenXRI-specific terms.
Since they (currently) don't even have CanonicalIDs, I would simply say there cannot exist any global abstract model that could define them as synonyms in the way I mean it when I say "aliases". But who cares?
Once OpenXRI has CanonicalIDs this will be different. However, I am not yet sure how. One possibility would be to put absolute CanonicalIDs into the store.. This would mean that @free*c, @free*d, @free*a*b and @free*x*y*z would all have the same CanonicalID, which of course would break CanonicalID Verification. Another possibility would be to store what you call local canonical identifiers. Then the four "aliases" would have verifiable, but different CanonicalIDs (except @free*c and @free*d; they would still have the same).
I guess both is not perfect....

-Markus

On 5/17/07, Steven Churchill <steven.churchill@xdi.org > wrote:

Markus,

 

Thanks for your response.

 

Here's something you might consider. You say that the following are aliases:

- @free*c
- @free*d
- @free*a*b
- @free*x*y*z

 

as I said in the first paragraph of my proposed text: "Identifier synonymity cannot exist outside of an abstract model that formalizes the absolute identity of the object for which two identifiers purport to be synonyms." For example, one cannot say that "Steven Churchill" and "Steve Churchill" are synonyms for "me" (the guy typing this) without first having a model in which the absolute identity of "me" is defined.


So if the above XRIs are all aliases, then we should examine the absolute identity to which they are all aliases. It seems that, in your case, your model's notion of absolute identity is "the XRI authority that returns an SEP containing URI http://www.inames.net under default service selection." (Or perhaps it is: "the XRI authority that returns this particular set of SEPs containing these values".

 

XRI resolution certainly does not preclude a synonym/identity model that defines the identity of an authority in any of these ways. But the more rigorous the notion of identity, the more practical application you will get from your model.

 

~ Steve

 

 


From: openxri-users-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net [mailto:openxri-users-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net] On Behalf Of Markus Sabadello
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 3:47 PM
To: Steven Churchill
Cc: openxri-users@lists.sourceforge.net; andy.dale@ootao.com; xri@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [Openxri-users] [xri] Proposed draft text for WD11 introducingthe authority graph model. [Was Thoughts about XRI aliases.]

 


This is very good. Something like that would have helped me a lot to understand XRI resolution in the beginning. I especially like this paragraph:

"XRI Resolution does not preclude alternative models of XRI synonymity and/or object identity, however this specification provides no mechanism for synonym verification under such alternative models."

This would legitimize OpenXRI's current approach to aliases, which I really would like to keep (and Gabe too I believe). I think I keep calling them aliases, because I instinctively felt that they were not quite compatible with the synonym mechanisms defined in the Resolution Spec.

I now actually set up the example I talked about in my other mail a few days ago. I configured the following XRIs as aliases "inside" the OpenXRI server:
- @free*c
- @free*d
- @free*a*b
- @free*x*y*z

They share all SEPs and should resolve to http://www.inames.net. For *c and *d, appropriate LocalIDs are automatically included in the XRD.

By the way, of course I agree with you that the OpenXRI server would be pretty useless without CanonicalID support.. As seen here, this is on top of the list :)
http://dev.inames.net/wiki/OpenXRI:RoadMap#Server_-_Authority

Your definitions 1.6.1, 1.6.2 and 1.6.3 will be helpful to properly implement this.

-Markus

On 5/15/07, Steven Churchill < steven.churchill@xdi.org> wrote:

All,

 

Enough of my complaining with regard to the XRI Resolution spec neglecting to define its abstract model for the resolution authority graph.

 

I've attached a proposal for text to be added to WD11.

 

I look forward to your comments.

 

~ Steve

 


 




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