[cap-talk] Capability begginer questions

[James A. Donald]

Valerio Bellizzomi wrote:
 > I find it silly to say that Capability based systems
 > are more imagined or largely nonexistent. As long as
 > ONE implementation exists, they are real.
 >
 > They are not widely used, but that is a side question.

In engineering, terminology in large part follows,
rather than precedes, widespread usage.

Some of the material posted on this list would be more
appropriate in a definitive guide, a guide that can only
come into existence when we have real world experience
with real world use under real world attack.

The Wright brothers plane did not exist until it flew,
and a capability system does not exist until it comes
under real world attack and resists that attack, and it
will not come under real world attack until widely
deployed.

A system that is widely deployed, and works, is likely
to redefine the terminology.  The first WIMP GUI was
created in the 1960s, the term "WIMP" coined in 1980,
the first commercially successful such system created in
1984, but the terminology by which we talk about and
understand GUIs comes substantial part from Microsoft's
work in the 1990s.  It was in the 1990s that Microsoft
and Apple released guidelines for these interfaces,
guidelines that swiftly underwent major change.

First the such interfaces were created, then they were
created such that they came into wide use, and only then
were definitive guides issued defining things and
telling people how to write WIMP GUIs.