Requirements for object existence queries

[Dan Cohen <dcohen@register.com>]

In section 3.9 [4] of the requirements draft,  it says:

A query to determine if an object exists in the registry MUST return only a 
positive or negative response so that server software
that responds to this query can be optimized for speed.

In think that MUST should change to MAY.  If a registry can implement a 
highly optimized query that returns more information (maybe the
registrar who "owns" the object), so much the better.  That information 
would probably be quite helpful to registrars.

And while we are on the topic of optimizing for speed, have people 
considered that an XML based protocol might not be the ideal choice for this?
XML based protocols are almost universally more verbose than non-XML 
alternatives, and while the CPU overhead for parsing the XML may be
negligible, when you consider added CPU time for encryption, plus extra 
network bandwidth, you wind up which a much less performance
friendly protocol.

My humble 2 cents.

Dan



Dan Cohen
Manager of Software Engineering
Register.Com, Inc.
212-798-9260