First draft of a list of goals

[This is not meant to be final; I'm happy to take suggestions
for changes.  -Jeff]

(1) Reach consensus on an HTTP 1.1 cache design and specification.

(1a) Address HTTP 1.1, and do not speculate about things that do not
make sense in that context.

(1b) Our product should be in writing and should be comprehensible
to someone who didn't participate in this subgroup.

(2) Correctness comes before performance.  

(2a) The protocol must ALLOW correct caching, in which the user is
guaranteed to see a valid copy of an object unless some network failure
prevents it.

(2b) The protocol must ALLOW users, servers, and proxies to choose
performance over correctness if they want to, but must not force
them to do so.

(2c) We will aim for the best possible performance within the
limits of implementability.

(3) Interoperate with pre-1.1 implementations without acting
worse (less correct or slower) than a pre-1.1 implementation.

Received on Wednesday, 20 December 1995 19:16:30 UTC