Re: Improving If-Modified-Since

> >In addition to supporting size=SIZE I encourage other server authors to
> >do an _equals_ comparison rather than a greater than or equal comparison
> >of the two dates.
> 
> Absolutely not -- that would be a violation of both the spec and the
> intentions of IMS.  In addition to being a cache mechanism, it allows
> a client to request a document "only if it has been changed in the last
> fifteen minutes".  In this case, it may not know what the server's
> Last-Modified date is prior to the request.

If it is a violation of the spec then you really ought to make the spec
clearer on this point.  All the major servers that I know of do a
greater than or equal comparison.  The spec needs to be changed to
specifically say that 304 should only be returned when the If-modified-since
date matches the current modification date of the file.

:lou
-- 
Lou Montulli                 http://www.mcom.com/people/montulli/
       Netscape Communications Corp.

Received on Tuesday, 15 August 1995 13:06:16 UTC