- From: Tony Sanders <sanders@bsdi.com>
- Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 14:47:22 -0500
- To: http-wg%cuckoo.hpl.hp.com@hplb.hpl.hp.com
- Cc: Paul Richards <p.richards@elsevier.co.uk>
I've copied this email to the HTTP working group so they can decided
if they should include some extra verbage in the spec to make things
clearer.
Background:
Some clients are ignoring the data ("entity") sent along with
4xx codes so users never see the actual reason for the failure.
Other clients are displaying the raw HTTP headers as if it
were expecting a plain-text string or something.
Paul Richards writes:
> In reply to Tony Sanders who said
> > Quoting from the spec [draft-ietf-http-v10-spec-05; Feb 1996]:
> > 9.4 Client Error 4xx
> > ...
> > Except when responding to a HEAD request, the server should
> > include an entity containing an explanation of the error
> > situation, and whether it is a temporary or permanent condition.
>
> Perhaps the new spec should mandate that the user-agent provide the user
> with the entity-body when it receives it or at least make it a SHOULD
> so browser developers get a stronger hint.
Received on Tuesday, 14 May 1996 12:51:20 UTC