Re: How to add new "protocols" ?

Luigi Rizzo wrote:
> 
> > > > By the way, section 3.2.2 gives a the only clear definition of
> > > > http_URL, which indicates that
> > 
> > > don't have the document handy, but if, as you say, the spec says
> > > two different things in two different places, it is just arbitrary
> > > to pick one definition as the correct one and the other as wrong.
> > 
> > I did not. The question is twofold.
> > 
> > HTTP can be implemented over whatever, as you observe.
> > 
> > The spec is very clear on the meaning of http://, however. It
> > is TCP specific.
> 
> Ok, now I get your point: here, and in the rest of your message,
> you make a very careful distinction between HTTP and http:// and
> I clearly failed in that. My personal impression is that in RFC2068 the
> word TCP is generally used to mean the underlying transport protocol,
> and in 3 sections (1.4, 8.2, 10.4) it is explicit that TCP is not the
> only possible transport, whereas it is never said that there cannot be
> other transport. The strict use of the word "TCP"
> in the definition of http:// might just have slipped in because of
> brevity, more than understandable in such a long document. Of course,
> the last word goes to the authors.

I was about to point this out. But it goes further. The point of a URL is that
it provides _complete_ information on how to retrieve the specified resource.
TCP is therefore mandated by http: in order to make the information complete
(we then know that we resolve the hostname with DNS and connect with TCP).

If you want to retrieve it by some other method, you need a new tag for that
method.

And, BTW, the last word doesn't go to the authors, they are supposed to
document the consensus of the WG.

Cheers,

Ben.

-- 
Ben Laurie                Phone: +44 (181) 994 6435  Email: ben@algroup.co.uk
Freelance Consultant and  Fax:   +44 (181) 994 6472
Technical Director        URL: http://www.algroup.co.uk/Apache-SSL
A.L. Digital Ltd,         Apache Group member (http://www.apache.org)
London, England.          Apache-SSL author

Received on Tuesday, 18 February 1997 14:10:06 UTC