Re: On transparency

>> > I defy you to explain, for example, how Shel Kaphan can make his
>> > book-ordering server work in your user-wins model.
>> 
>> That's easy -- give the user an option at the outset regarding how
>> they would like to proceed.
> 
> You are wrong on this one Roy. There are a class of applications for
> which any alternative other than strict obediance to the server's
> intent would cause sever breakage. The PROTOCOL *MUST* support
> such applications.

Ahem.  There does not exist any conforming HTTP application for
which caching a response to a GET request would cause severe breakage.
That is one of the reasons why GET and HEAD have the semantics of a
retrieval and do not allow side-effects which would be significant to
the user's action.

.....Roy

Received on Thursday, 29 February 1996 09:43:52 UTC