and remove checkout/checkin completely. ('use' instead of 'modify'
sounds less like "The modification cause the versioning" (which it
never does by nature of a working copy (IMHO - s.a.))
If the draft wanted to define it, then it woud be something like:
checkout: an operation on a resource that creates a working copy
checkin: an operation on a working copy that creates a new version
of its corresponding versioned resource.
The issue here is that in some systems, checkout will not create a
new resource, just flip a bit on the versioned resource.
Also, (I think) there are systems where checking in does not create
a new version, but flips a bit on the working resource *making* it a
version (at the same URL).
Thus, defining this would need to be defined in a more generic way.
My attempt:
"Checkout: an operation on a versioned resource that creates a
working copy, or changes the versioned resource to be a working-copy
as well ("in-place versioning").
Checkin: an operation on a working copy that creates a new version of
its corresponding versioned resource.
Note: the operations for putting a resource under version control,
and for checking in and checking out depend on the protocol in use
and are beyond the scope of this document; see [CMIS], [RFC3253] and
[JSR-283] for details)."