[cap-talk] Deep attenuation

[David Hopwood]

Mark Miller wrote:
> On 8/12/07, David Hopwood <david.hopwood at industrial-designers.co.uk> wrote:
>> I prefer "deep attenuation", since that is consistent with
>> the shallow version being called just "attenuation".
>> "Mask" does not convey the idea that the attenuation
>> applies transitively to referenced objects.
> 
> I agree. When applied specifically to directories, I'd find either
> term plausible, because of the image of turning permission bits on and
> off. But when attenuating forms of authority that have no plausible
> representation as permission bits, I'd find "mask" perplexing. For
> example, Redell's caretaker does a temporal attenuation of authority.
> The membrane does this same temporal attenuation, but deeply.

OK, I've added this to
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-capability_model#Glossary_of_related_terms>

-- 
David Hopwood <david.hopwood at industrial-designers.co.uk>