Webtop 6.5 SP2 User (mis)Guide: Versions

Webtop 6.5 SP2 User Guide describes versions as shown in the attached screenshot of page 34 below. In an apparent attempt to simplify the concepts it errs on the side of inaccuracy. The concerns are described and corrected below the image.

Description of Versions in Webtop 6.5 SP2 User Guide

1. The version labels for Documentum objects are strings and not decimal numbers. They are strings even for the implicit version labels (automatically assigned by Content Server using a number-based format), some of which may be considered to be decimal numbers (1.2, 3.4, etc.). But the comparison ends right there. For example, 2.3.1.2 is not a decimal number but a valid version number. Decimal numbers don’t have multiple decimal points. “Increasing version number by a tenth” is also inaccurate because increasing the decimal number 1.9 by a tenth should give you 2.0 but a minor increment of the version number 1.9 gives you 1.10 as the new version. Further, 1.1 and 1.10 would be identical as decimal numbers but duplicate version numbers are not allowed in a version tree. Particularly, these last two points make the decimal analogy egregious.
2. This version label should be 5.0.1.0 since a branch is created by appending .1.0 to the parent version. There are always odd number of dots or points (not decimal points) in an implicit version label, so 5.0.1 is not even a valid implicit version number.

Correction for Documentum Architecture Whitepaper

[UPDATE] A new version (November 2009) of the architecture whitepaper is out now. However, the errors pointed out below continue to persist in the new version.

A Documentum Architecture whitepaper is available on EMC Documentum Developer Community site – EMC Documentum Architecture: Delivering the Foundations and Services for Managing Content Across the Enterprise. A part of page 13 from the currently posted version (dated January 2008, a newer version will probably fix this issue) is shown below. It describes object-level security in a confusing manner.

Page 13 of Documentum Architecture Whitepaper

The areas of concern are marked in the image. These concerns are explained below:

1. Under Basic Permissions, it states that Delete is a special case with regard to the cumulative property. This is an incorrect assertion. The Delete basic permission does imply all the other lower basic permissions.
2. The section title – “Object-level delete privileges” is inconsistent with Documentum terminology. Privileges are associated with users and permissions are associated with objects being secured.
3. “Delete Object permission” should be “Delete Object extended permission” to be unambiguously correct. It is not the basic delete permission, which is  suggested by the last sentence of the previous section.
4. Two Extended Permissions are missing in the list – Delete Object and Change Folder Links. The Delete Object extended permission is actually what is explained under the title “Object-level delete privileges” above. The Change Folder Links  extended permission was introduced in Documentum 6. It enables linking to and unlinking from a folder.