- From: Brad Fults <bfults@gmail.com>
- Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2006 10:23:19 -0700
- To: "Web APIs WG (public)" <public-webapi@w3.org>
The current draft [1] has the following non-normative text in the Introduction: > The XMLHttpRequest object is an interface exposed by a scripting engine that allows scripts to perform HTTP client functionality, such as submitting form data or loading data from a server. > > The name of the object is XMLHttpRequest for compatibility with the web as it doesn't make much sense otherwise. It supports the transport of other data formats in addition to XML, some implementations support other protocols besides HTTP (that functionality is not covered in this specification though) and the API supports sending data as well. > The wording here is clumsy and could be cleaned up. My suggestions are as follows: The XMLHttpRequest object implements an interface exposed by a scripting engine that allows scripts to perform HTTP client functionality, such as submitting form data or loading data from a server. The name of the object is XMLHttpRequest for historical and compatibility reasons, though each component of this name is potentially misleading. First, the object is data transport agnostic – it supports any data format, including XML. Second, it can be used to make requests over both HTTP and HTTPS (some implementations support protocols in addition to HTTP and HTTPS, but that functionality is not covered in this specification). Finally, it supports "requests" in a broad sense of the term as it pertains to HTTP; namely all activity involved with HTTP requests or responses for the defined HTTP methods [2]. [1] - http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-XMLHttpRequest-20060927/ [2] - http://www.w3.org/TR/XMLHttpRequest/#method -- Brad Fults
Received on Saturday, 14 October 2006 17:23:30 UTC