[Bug-gnupedia] Re: A Detailed Proposal - Mk I

[Simon Cross]

Poing!

With regards to my proposal Stan Seibert wrote:

> Excellent proposal, but I have one suggestion.  Since the article will
> be in XML/HTML anyway, we can modify the DTD (I'd include Schema here,
> but I don't know what XML Schema are..) to include a tag just for
> encyclopedia article links.  For example, here is a possible usage
> (paralleling your usage above):

> --- 
> ...Blah, blah, blah... Oceanographers often go on excursions
> tracking the movements of
> <article articleserver="articleserver.gnu.org"
>          authorserver="gnu-authors-reviewers.gnu.org"
>          authorname="joesoap" articlename="whales" 
>          articleversion="2.1">whales</article>
> in the ocean.
> ---

> Then this tag can be translated into a CGI call, direct link, or
> whatever else makes sense to the conversion utility.

The problem I have with replacing the cgi-script call with an <article>
tag is that this will mean the client (person reading the article) will be
unable to check the digital signatures on the article.  When the article
is sent to the client, the server will translate the <article> tags into
links thus changing the text of the article and breaking the signatures.  

That said, I'm not sure how necessary it is for readers to check the
digital signatures on articles since this will be done when articles are
submitted.  Also the server could include both the link tag <a href=...>
which it has created for the broswer and the <article> tag (inside a
comment, maybe).  Then if a client wanted to check the digital signatures
he/she could just replace the <a href=...> tags with their associated
<article> tags.

In fact, I'll modify my proposal to suggest that <article> tags be used
as suggested by Stan Seibert and that the <article> tags be left in the
article when the article is sent to the client.  Someone can then write a
small script which replaces the link tags with the original <article> tag
and checks the signature.  This method will also be useful with non-HTML
content since the server will be able to replace a <article type=image>
tag with a <img src=...> tag.  Again the original <article> tag will be
kept for signature checking.

This raises the issue of wether the <article> tag should be called an
<article> tag.  Perhaps <encyclopedia_object> tag would be a better
name.  Maybe we should have different tags for different things,
e.g. <article>, <image>, <video>, <audio>.

Ping! Onward and upwards. :)

Ciao. 
Simon Cross

--- Imagine there's no heaven.  It's easy if you try.  
    No hell below us.  Above us only sky.
                           John Lennon, Imagine.  ---

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