Re: Client Option for Strong References

"Roy T. Fielding" wrote:

> The only type of client that needs to know the difference
> between a nonexistent target of a direct reference and a nonexistent
> resource is a WebDAV authoring client.  For the rest, 404 is sufficient.

I'm not sure that's the case.  If a client PUTs to a direct reference that it
thinks is a nonexistent resource, the results can be surprising.  Consider
this scenario: I have a dangling direct reference into another user's
directory tree; I don't have write permission on the target.  I come along and
find that my direct reference is reporting 404; I forget that it was a
reference, so I think I must have deleted that page.  So I find/create a
replacement for that page and try to PUT it, only to be told I don't have
write permission.

--
/====================================================================\
|John (Francis) Stracke    |My opinions are my own.|S/MIME supported |
|Software Retrophrenologist|=========================================|
|Netscape Comm. Corp.      |If God had not given us duct tape, it    |
|francis@netscape.com      | would have been necessary to invent it. |
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Received on Friday, 9 October 1998 20:11:46 UTC