On Jan 31, 2005, at 8:40 PM, Tim Bray wrote:
Graham's right, the word "identical" is wrong, because in fact you will commonly encounter two instances of the same entry which aren't identical (e.g. the one in your cache and the one you just fetched). I suggest "Software MUST treat any two entries which have the same ID as instances of the same entry, regardless of how they were obtained or any differences in their content." Or if you want it less prescriptive "By definition, any two entries which have the same ID are instances of the same entry, regardless of how they were obtained or any differences in their content."
Over-specification is just too fun. So that would mean I am required by Atom format to treat two different entries with the id "http://tbray.org/uid/1000"; as the same entry, even when I received the first one from tbray.org and the second from mymonkeysbutt.net?
Oh yeah, that'll be fun. ;-)
It is not necessary for the format to require world peace, or anything generally equivalent to it. Give implementations the freedom to do whatever they like with the format -- just tell them what the syntax means and the implementations will sort themselves out.
....Roy
