authmeth - user & client usage

["Steve Sonntag" <vtag@novell.com>]

In reviewing the draft, I was struck by what seems to me to be an
inconsistancy between the usage of the terms user and client.

The draft defines user as 
> "user" represents any application which is an LDAP client using 
>  the directory to retrieve or store information. 

In my mind a client is a client implementation of the LDAP protocol
(API)
where a user is an application using an implementation of an LDAP
client (API) to access an LDAP directory.

If one uses definitions like this, then there is a division of
responsibility -
between the client API and the application. Many of the usages of
client in
the I-D should really be user.  An example is the discussion of
bind in section 4.3.3.  

> If the client did not bind before sending a request and receives an 
> operationsError, it may then send a Bind Request. If this also fails

> or the client chooses not to bind on the existing connection, it 
> will close the connection, reopen it and begin again by first 
> sending a PDU with a Bind Request. 

Other usages seem to be the responsibility of the client (API), like
section 5.1:

> The client MUST NOT send any PDUs on this connection following this 
>  request until it receives a Start TLS extended response.

I suggest that the terminology be tightened to distinguish between the
application
and the implementation of the client protocol.  To me, the term
application is 
perhaps clearer in meaning than user.

-Steve

------------------------
Steve Sonntag
Novell, Inc., the leading provider of Net services software