ietf-openproxy
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: AW: Using XML in OCP transport

2003-05-08 14:33:53

Alex Rousskov wrote:

Polished ICAP/1.1:
        - OCP stays application specific (though we may be able
          to hack SMTP support, in since real implementations already
          do that now)

Although our charter does not necessarily require us to be application agnostic, general consensus of the WG has been that our solution SHOULD try to be so. As such, I would assume that the WG doesn't want to follow this approach.

New ICAP/2.0 on top of TCP:
        - OCP becomes the best protocol we can come up with, fixing
          known ICAP problems or limitations
        - more OCP work for us
        - more incentive to upgrade existing ICAP installations and
          implementations
        - preserves original ICAP look and feel to ease the migration
        - implementation complexity somewhat higher than of ICAP/1.0
        - no XML worries

We would have to worry about and to work on many things that are already solved by BEEP, thus possibly distracting from making progress on the "main delta" to existing solutions.

Would anyone commit the time and resources required to drive this forward in a timely manner without impacting our progress on the core OPES issues?

        - some pummeling from IETF powers for not reusing BEEP?

I wouldn't worry about this if we have good arguments and a strong case for not using BEEP.

OCP on top of BEEP:
        - OCP fixes known ICAP problems or limitations
        - some tension between BEEP and OCP transport needs will
          be visible in protocol design and may limit BEEP library
          reuse (but we do not expect much code reuse anyway)
        - less work for us when it comes to transport security
          negotiations and such (BEEP community already did that)
        - more incentive to upgrade existing ICAP installations and
          implementations
        - more difficult migration path
        - high implementation complexity
        - XML worries

It's not just "less work", it would also simplify life in avoiding pitfalls and in "solving" challenging problems others already took care of in the past.

        - kudus from Marshall and IETF powers for reusing BEEP?

That should not be the decision making factor, we should focus on technical issues.

-Markus