[Opensim-dev] Global identifiers

[Melanie]

Hi,

Meadhbh Hamrick wrote:
> a. why use a URL unless you want to have the URL resolve to a HTTP
> endpoint that can be queried in some way?

We want it to be usable as a URL (to call up additional data, or
send IM, etc) but still carry enough data that simple display of the
textual representation of the name doesn't require a lookup.

> 
> b. what if you want to change your name?

Prims would forever show the name the avatar had at the time they
created the prim, and the grid the prim was created on. This appears
to make sense to me, since that is also the person I presumably
bought it from and I would remember them by that name. If I were to
click "Profile", this would cause a lookup of the URL and retrieve
the current data, including the changed name. I could them attempt
to IM the creator from there.
The main concern here is to remove the need to look up remote data
each time a prim is selected.
Also, changing avatar names is something the protocol wasn't
designed for. The caching involved makes it a very iffy proposition,
because even the CLIENT caches key->name mappings. This is why
renamed avatars in a local grid appear as their old names the
friends list, while over their heads, they have the new name.
So, whoever renames avatars gets whet they deserve. Chaos.

> 
> and
> 
> c. if you want to have
> http://www.avination.net/user/44626b40-13d6-4817-b61b-de5df7b5e7e8/Melanie+Milland
> (or something like it) be that URL, then what happens when i want to
> move from avination.net to example.com?

You do not "move". The URL defines the avatar known as Melanie
Milland on the avination grid. It will never reference another
avatar. In this case, avination.net is the identity provider for
that account and the account exists in this namespace.
You can't "move". If you want to _switch_ identity providers, you
MAY be able to take inventory, etc, with you, but the identity is
another one. You would no longer be the avatar who created those prims.
It's like email accounts. You call it "moving" from gmail to yahoo,
but you don't move, you create a new account and set up a forwarding.
We may devise a system that handles forwarding, but that depends on
the original grid still being there. As with the email, if you move
from gmail to yahoo and gmail were to go out of business, your mail
addressed to gmail would no longer be forwarded to your yahoo address.

> 
> mixing URLs with URIs isn't the end of the world, but it does make it
> difficult to change names or canonical URLs when you mix them.

See above. Name changers get what they deserve. Name change is not
even safe on a local grid. Avoidance of lookups in the 99% case is
more important than correctly handling corner cases.

Melanie