Re: Simple Internet Calendar Access Protocol

[Chris Newman <Chris.Newman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 26 Apr 1998, Surendra Reddy wrote:
> I have just submitted a sketchy version of "Simple Calendar
> Access Protocol" - a web based protocol to access Calendar
> Objects from any web browser.

I am strongly opposed to using the word "simple" where it doesn't apply. 
A protocol layered on top of HTTP and XML is far from simple.  That's 200
pages of specification that has to be read and implemented before a
developer can start doing anything useful.  Besides, I don't think CAP can
ever be simple due to the access control demands and related issues.

BTW, is there any technical benefit to layering a protocol on top of HTTP?

Here are some cons to using HTTP:
* It is very complex
* The profile of MIME it uses makes it interoperate poorly with standard
  MIME email (see RFC 2110, section 11 for some of the issues).
* It has inadequate security mechanisms (mostly plaintext passwords and
  40-bit RC4 RSA SSL).
* If port 80 is used, then you are forcing firewalls to filter HTTP at the
  application level, which is likely to prevent calendar services from
  ever working through a firewall.  (SMTP-app-level firewalls tend to
  reject *all* protocol extensions, so I expect HTTP-app-level
  firewalls will do the same).

		- Chris