This is further to my post "Open Challenge to webfinger, XRD". The post has grown in all directions. So I would like to put my arguments in a nutshell. <div><br></div><div><br>
<div>The idea of an XRD without a Subject is unacceptable for the following reasons.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><div>1) XRD without <Subject> is a security risk. If nothing, it makes life easier for the "Man in the middle attacker".</div>
<div>2) Cacheing of XRD's is thrown out of the window. You can't cache XRD's without a <Subject>. I firmly believe that Cacheing of XRD's will be a "BIG THING". Applications "IN THE KNOW OF XRD's" will deifinitely like to cache XRD's. It will definitely speed up the discovery process.</div>
<div>3) I am seeing the real possibility that applications will be developed where users can "save" their XRD's locally. Further, users may be able to to upload their XRD's to sites that require it. All this will require a <Subject>.</div>
<div>4) I "SUSPECT" XRD's without <Subject> plays into the interest's of large organizations. XRD"s without <Subject> will keep us dependent on the large organizations. Because XRD"s without <Subject> are transient and cannot be "Saved".</div>
<div><br></div><div>Now if we conclude from the four points above that the <Subject> of the XRD MUST be mandatory. The followimg will follow.</div><div>1) Host-meta MUST have a <Subject> Element.</div><div>2) The idea that the host-meta XRD must be different from the resource XRD pointed to with the same domain, is a "KLUTZ" being enforced on us by the large organizations, who would like to have XRD's without <Subject>. I have explained my argument against this in answer to John Bradley and John Kemp which I will copy and paste here.</div>
<div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, geneva, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; ">>>>>>>> Now this is exactly the point I am making, that the personal XRD and host meta are the same in the case a domain name also describes a personal resource. In the case of "<a href="http://thread-safe.net/" target="_top" rel="nofollow" style="font-size: 1em; ">thread-safe.net</a>" your personal XRD and the host meta are the same. There is no contradiction here. It is only the context in which the resource is looked for that makes a difference.<div style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); ">
<br></div><div style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); ">So if you typed in "<a href="http://thread-safe.net/" target="_top" rel="nofollow" style="font-size: 1em; ">thread-safe.net</a>" as your OpenID, the application will simply treat the host meta as your personal XRD. On the other hand if you typed in<a href="http://www.nabble.com/user/SendEmail.jtp?type=post&post=25967723&i=0" target="_top" rel="nofollow" style="font-size: 1em; ">john@...</a> or <a href="http://thread-safe.net/john" target="_top" rel="nofollow" style="font-size: 1em; ">thread-safe.net/john</a>, the application will treat the XRD as host meta and look for a URITemplate with Rel="describedby" + MediaType="application/xrd_xml".</div>
<div style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); "><br></div><div style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); ">
The Rel values for your Personal Links and "general" resource Links will not be that same. There will be no overlap or contradictions here. This way we keep the whole concept clean and simple.</div><div style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); ">
<<<<<<</div><div style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); "><br></div><div style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); ">
>>>>>>> The application looking for a resource already knows wether it is looking for an "information resource" or "non information resource". The application already knows what it is looking for in an XRD. The idea of trying to differentiate this XRD is moot under the circumstances. Unless of cource you can show a use case where an application does NOT know what it is looking for in an XRD. </div>
<<<<<<<<<</span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana, geneva, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana, geneva, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Regarding the fact that I have suggested the idiocy of XRI TC in the earlier thread. I want to make a clarification on this. By no means am I suggesting that members of the XRI TC individually are idiots. On the other hand I consider them "brilliant individuals" alone. Unfortunately the way the world works, brilliant individuals can collectively come up with "IDIOTIC" conclusions. And this is not only true of the XRI TC but any group of people coming together worldwide. The phrase "The Camel is a Horse designed by a committee" is very appropriate here.</font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana, geneva, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana, geneva, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">I have a third grouse with XRD about "delegation". But I will leave it for another post.</font></div>
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