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Linkology -- short version
Here is the real impact of what I am proposing for SPKI/SDSI. The
rest of my long note was discussion that can be read later.
Point: A link should be clearly identified as such, and not muddled in with
another primitive, such as "hash". A hash is only one way of having
a secure link to another object.
Thus: Use (link (hash sha #ab..#))
instead of (hash sha #ab..#)
Use (link (hash sha #ab..#) (url "http://..."))
instead of (hash sha #ab..# "http://...")
This is CLEARER as to INTENT, and is EXTENSIBLE for other kinds of links
in the future, some of which may not involve hashing. (SDSI names is the
primary candidate I have in mind, but there will be others.) The cost of
making this change is also minimal.
This IS simple.
Ron Rivest
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