Re: Review of new HTTPbis text for 303 See Other

On Jul 9, 2009, at 6:22 PM, Roy T. Fielding wrote:

> On Jul 9, 2009, at 9:04 AM, Pat Hayes wrote:
>> Hmm, then I am puzzled. Does 303 redirection really imply that
>> the server **does not have** a transferable representation?
>
> If the server has a transferable representation, it would
> respond to the GET with the appropriate status code (200 or 304).
>

Well, yes, IF it were driven solely by what one might call rational  
HTTP architectural principles. BUt surely the whole issue about  
httprange14 is that it introduces new principles which on their face  
have nothing to do with http architecture as such, but to do with  
denotation and naming. If the URI in the GET request is not intended  
to denote the resource to which the GET is directed, then that  
resource must issue a 303 redirection, and must not return a  
representation using a 200 status code. That has nothing to do with  
the existence or not of such a representation. Even if the  
representation exists and the server has access to it, it cannot  
return it with a 200 code when the URI is intended to denote some  
other thing, in particular a non-information resource of some kind.

If we follow your rule, above, and also httprange14, then a server can  
be placed in an impossible position. If it has a representation of  
itself which  could be put into a 200-code response, and it receives a  
GET request with a URI which it knows (somehow, perhaps by some  
externally agreed convention) is being used to denote a non- 
information resource; what should it do? HTTPrange14 requires it to  
not deliver a 200-coded reply, but your criterion requires that it  
must. This is why I think the wording should make absilutely minimal  
assumptions about what exactly the 303 means.

Pat

> ....Roy
>
>
>

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Received on Thursday, 9 July 2009 23:34:14 UTC