Re: [xml-dev] Re: Cookies at XML Europe 2004 -- Call for Particip ation

On Jan 6, 2004, at 8:54 AM, Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote:
>

>  Unless you know the user name and password, you can't get in. Once 
> you've typed in the URL and password, however, you can load it using 
> only that URL. The browser remembers the username and password for 
> you. (Modern browsers even have an option to remember this between 
> sessions.)
>

I'm having a hard time seeing any deep architectural distinction 
between using a cookie to remember a (presumably encrypted) 
name/password and using a proprietary mechanism in a browser to 
remember a name/password.  Why is the former bad and contrary to the 
web architecture, and the latter is a good thing, even though "it is 
very little used on the web today?"   (Why not?)