UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

I've released a set of new Internet Drafts that describe DBIS: an alternative to NIS and to the RFC2307 schema that has been used to date for representing NIS data in an LDAP Directory Server.

I'm writing a number of articles over the weeks further explaining the benefits of DBIS, and will also be comparing it with NIS and RFC2307. There is no implementation of DBIS yet besides the LDAP schemas described in the Internet Drafts, however, now is a great time to get involved if you want to see improvements made in this space. See my latest article for further information: Technical Prose: DBIS: Distributed Management.

You certainly have the cart before the horse! Usually an implementation is required before a standard (RFC) is agreed. And frankly I see no advantage(s) to your proposed design.

if you want people to take your proposal seriously, then you need to develop a reference implementation.

You're quite right of course, and a reference implementation is indeed the next thing I'm working on. This is the way I work, I design on paper first, then implement. Others may have elected to get something working first, then write down what they did, but I think this is just a matter of choice. Both are required, I think the order is not so important. By writing the Internet Drafts first, I am very clear on what I need to implement, and on exactly how all the pieces fit together.

As for you seeing no advantages in my proposed design, perhaps this is because I haven't articulated the advantages with clarity yet. One would need to read through all of my Internet Drafts thoroughly to understand the advantages, and I don't expect the layman to do that. I shall be setting out advantages in a blog post soon. Watch this space.

Best regards,
Mark.