Mike, what do you mean by "Real Stuff"? And what pollution has been
introduced?
In general I think that making responses self-explaining - regardless
of the intelligence of the client - results in much more robust
applications than when clients have to keep track of the session
history.
Theo
>>> [log in to unmask] 25-3-04 15:22:11 >>>
> Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 12:29:33 +0000
> From: Robert Sanderson <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > Sorry to blend into an ongoing discussion, buuut I do not think
> > that a standard should aim at beeing good for brain-dead
> > clients.
>
> Thankfully, now we have the extension mechanism to test things like
> this out in practice before they make it into the protocol proper.
Yeeesss. Extensions are certainly a less painful path to take than
constantly messing with the standard. But I am still worried by the
encroaching influence of Dumb Clients on SRW.
Here's how the history of Dumb SRW/U Clients appears to me:
1. SRW/U invented.
2. People observe that you can make a neat demo just with a web
browser.
3. SRW/U extended to allow slightly neater demos.
4. (Reapeat step 3 several times)
5. SRW/U standard has got big and ugly, the packets sent over the
network are twice the size a Non-Dumb Client needs, and Dumb
Clients _still_ don't completely work because (stand by for a
surprise) they're Dumb.
I fear that we are in danger of progressively polluting the protocol
in the pursuit of a series of increasingly marginal gains. Sooner or
later people who want to do Real Stuff with SRW/U will have to bite
the bullet and start to write Non-Dumb Clients anyway, so I'm not
happy about continuing to make concessions to the dead-end street of
ever-fancier Dumb Demos.
And that's all I have to say about that.
_/|_
_______________________________________________________________
/o ) \/ Mike Taylor <[log in to unmask]>
http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\ "That which gets lost in translation" -- Robert Frost's
definition of poetry.
--
Listen to my wife's new CD of kids' music, _Child's Play_, at
http://www.pipedreaming.org.uk/childsplay/
