Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!world!bzs From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) Newsgroups: comp.text.sgml Subject: Re: FTP defn of SGML Message-ID: Date: 30 Sep 90 22:16:48 GMT References: <1990Sep28.134332.24815@terminator.cc.umich.edu> <1990Sep29.003132.17644@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <1990Sep30.191643.13942@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Sender: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) Organization: The World Lines: 27 In-Reply-To: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG's message of 30 Sep 90 19:16:43 GMT >As for your suggestion of a "checksum" to protect document integrety, this >would prevent such little repairs as correcting spelling, and so would be >immediately ignored or replaced as the document is updated. > >Kent, the man from xanth. Again, you're tossing the whole idea of on-line documentation in the trash. So we need a different solution. Nelson in Literary Machines discusses this. He basically comes up with a scheme very similar to SCCS or RCS, using versioning and difference files. Just another example of a possible solution. I honestly don't think this is a huge problem or proves anything. As I said, how often do you use the "man" command on Unix and say "hmm, it's possible someone tampered with this..." Go cut the tamperer's hands off or get a reliable, private copy. But it's not the critical issue in this. -- -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die | {xylogics,uunet}!world!bzs | bzs@world.std.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD