[Zope3-dev] RFC: Unification of requests and security contexts through Use

[Martijn Faassen]

Chris McDonough wrote:
> > Hm, I though you used "interaction" instead of "use". IMO, the idea is to
> > capture the interaction of one or more actors with the system.  "Interaction"
> > is the word I used before Steve suggested "use".
> 
> I'm lost, FWIW.

I'm lost too. I tried to read the wiki page but I don't understand it.
That's my perspective on its claims to increased clarity, for what it's worth.
Then again, I don't understand the current system either, I think. :)

I don't like the word 'use', as it leads to sentences involving "the use
of the use", which are highly difficult to comprehend. This is not a
theoretical complaint; Jim already used two such lines in a row in this thread 
already.

The "let's look at a concrete example" section in the wiki page is way too
abstract to help with understanding. :)

I don't understand the concept of "Actor" as differentiated from "Principal".
In my understanding, the Principal is the external entity that is using the
system, but apparently this is now not the case.

I don't understand the suggested benefits. In theory I can understand
a simplification by folding a few concepts into each other (Request and Security
Context), but in practice I'm suddenly confronted with the new concepts of 
Use, Participation and Actor. Generic words that don't ring "Security" to me
either.

Getting rid of Globals and increasing performance sounds fine too, but I'm
rather wondering whether there isn't a simpler way.

To summarize: Houston would like to call the abstraction astronauts back down 
to Earth as we didn't plan the manned Mars mission just yet...

Then again, I may be missing a lot of background. Presumably you'd like to
include Chris and myself in your audience though. If it's only Steve, Jim
and Phillip that can understand this then it's definitely too
complicated. :)

Regards,

Martijn