RE: questions -- clarifications requested

Shel writes:
]
] I think, as you suggested, you may be reading some other document than
] the one I'm reading, as all the uses of "should" in the various
] descriptions of the Location header I have only refer to what the URI
] in the header "should" be like, not when the header itself "should" be
] present  (except the discussion on 302 responses, which is uncontroversial)

I think I finally understand; sorry for being so dense.  We're reading 
the same document, just interpreting it quite differently. One of the 
relevant sentences in section 8.19 reads in part:
" For 2xx responses, the location should be the URL needed to retrieve that
   same resource again..."

It seems you read that as:
"If the location header is present, then for 2xx responses, it should 
be the URL..."
while I read it as:
"For 2xx responses, the location header should be present, and should 
be the URL..."

Since we're hopefully both reasonable people, and each read it quite 
differently, I'd conclude that it's ambiguous.

While I would argue for one of those choices over the other, even more 
important is that it be clear which it is.

And, if it's the first way, I'd like some definition of the 
circumstances when it should be present. Which is why I earlier 
proposed the following replacement for the first sentence of section 8.19:

"If the entity-body in a response corresponds to a resource (or, in the 
case of HEAD, would correspond to a resource if it were present), the 
Location response header field defines the exact location of that 
resource -- even if it is the same as the Request-URI."

Paul

Received on Thursday, 31 August 1995 12:42:49 UTC