[Grok-dev] sprint mini-report 2

[Christian Theune]

Hi,

On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 07:44:40PM -0400, Brandon Craig Rhodes wrote:
> Martijn Faassen <faassen at startifact.com> writes:
>
> [...]
>
> I will gently suggest that ideas like "traversable()" are the result
> of long experince with the ZODB ruining people's minds. :-) How?  By
> convincing them that a URL should not be a unique name for something,
> but rather should simply be an impermanent description of how to find
> something at this moment.  When people use the ZODB too much, they get
> used to the idea that moving an object from one folder to another
> should change its name - they get used, in other words, to separating
> the URL from an object's identity.
>
> [...]

I re-read Tim Berners-Lee's article [1] and the referenced article by Jakob
Nielsen [2].

What I understand is that there are two opposing forces:

- the need to have stable URIs (as in aliens from the 30th century will be
  able to follow links and bookmarks we save today)

- usable URIs (as in people can remember, type and manipulate them
  intuitively)

The recommendation for stability is: encode the point in time when you create
the URI and leave out as much information as possible.

The recommendation for usability is: encode site structure and make them
readable.

Thise sounds like a really hard problem that a flat structure like you propose
might be able to handle better, but still is a bit off. If you look at the
actual URLs that I'm referencing, I can't predict what I'll get at usite.com
and the Provider/Style/URI structure of the W3 actually is something they
don't even recommend.

Christian


[1] ... http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI
[2] ... http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990321.html

-- 
gocept gmbh & co. kg - forsterstrasse 29 - 06112 halle (saale) - germany
www.gocept.com - ct at gocept.com - phone +49 345 122 9889 7 -
fax +49 345 122 9889 1 - zope and plone consulting and development