Subject: authmeth - user & client usage

From: "Steve Sonntag" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2001 09:54:16 -0700

In reviewing the draft, I was struck by what seems to me to be an
inconsistancy between the usage of the terms user and client.

The draft defines user as 
> "user" represents any application which is an LDAP client using 
>  the directory to retrieve or store information. 

In my mind a client is a client implementation of the LDAP protocol
(API)
where a user is an application using an implementation of an LDAP
client (API) to access an LDAP directory.

If one uses definitions like this, then there is a division of
responsibility -
between the client API and the application. Many of the usages of
client in
the I-D should really be user.  An example is the discussion of
bind in section 4.3.3.  

> If the client did not bind before sending a request and receives an 
> operationsError, it may then send a Bind Request. If this also fails

> or the client chooses not to bind on the existing connection, it 
> will close the connection, reopen it and begin again by first 
> sending a PDU with a Bind Request. 

Other usages seem to be the responsibility of the client (API), like
section 5.1:

> The client MUST NOT send any PDUs on this connection following this 
>  request until it receives a Start TLS extended response.

I suggest that the terminology be tightened to distinguish between the
application
and the implementation of the client protocol.  To me, the term
application is 
perhaps clearer in meaning than user.

-Steve

------------------------
Steve Sonntag
Novell, Inc., the leading provider of Net services software

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From: "Kurt D. Zeilenga" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2001 12:43:10 -0800

Here are my personal thoughts on this.

It may be useful to distinguish between the user (a human or
application entity) and the client (director user agent).

It would be inappropriate to distinguish components of the client,
in particular which portions are part of APIs shared between
multiple clients and portions specific to the particular client.

Kurt