[Zope3-dev] RFC: Rename "principal" to "participant"

[Sebastien Douche]

On 9/13/05, Philipp von Weitershausen <philipp at weitershausen.de> wrote:
> > Perhaps it is helpful to describe what a principal really are.
> >
> > """
> > A principal object represents the security context of the user on whose
> > behalf the code is running, including the user's identity, groups and
> > roles to which they belong.
> > """
> 
> That's a good definition, thank you. Which source are you quoting from?

Yes, this definition is very useful.

> > I think you are right here. It's not easy to explain a security concept.
> > Perhaps we have to collect some good documentation from other principal
> > based security concept and see how they describe this part.
> 
> I agree. I very much like the definition you quoted above. Apart from
> that, I wish we could find a good pattern for translating "principal".
> Quoting the English term should be our last option. I wonder, for
> example, which term French speakers use when they *talk* to each other
> about principals... French is known to be very conservative when it
> comes to introducing English words to itself

Principal is used in law, finance, education, art, social economics...
All french translations aren't good for zope3. Using 'Principal' is
another option but it is also a french word ('main', 'the main thing')
: source of confusion. Currently, I don't know what to do. Another
difficult word is "credentials".

-- 
Sébastien Douche <sdouche at gmail.com>