On 17 apr 2012, at 11:47, Julian Foad <julianfoad_at_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.
Received on 2012-04-17 15:50:00 CEST