On 17 apr 2012, at 11:47, Julian Foad <julianf...@btopenworld.com> wrote:
> Thomas Åkesson wrote: > >> I have not had time to follow the Inherited Properties thread completely, >> but >> this is kind of related. One could argue that if a user knows about the URL >> to >> /A/B/C/D, then what is the harm in letting him read the properties of the >> parent >> directories? A significant simplification at the cost of not being able to >> store >> secret stuff in directory properties (file properties would still be safe). > > We should be very cautious about proposing an apparently "simple" special > case like that. A file has properties and text content; a directory has > properties and children; that's how it is in Subversion. Saying that a user > should be able to read part of a directory (its properties) and not the other > part (its children) is breaking that relatively simple abstraction, and > breaking abstractions in that way makes complications for all other software > layers that try to build on top of the foundation, not to mention for the > users' mental models. At first hearing, it doesn't sound like there could be > any major repercussions, but after a while I suspect we might regret it. Julian, I tend to agree with your objections, as indicated by my cautious wording. I was pushing the envelope a bit since access control might be a significant hurdle for inherited properties. /Thomas Å.
