- From: Roy T. Fielding <fielding@kiwi.ics.uci.edu>
- Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 12:26:14 -0800
- To: Mike_Spreitzer.PARC@xerox.com
- Cc: http-wg@cuckoo.hpl.hp.com
>I'm asking why the thing that initiates communication has to do so over HTTP, >whereas the thing that ultimately serves it does not have to do so over HTTP. Neither "has to do" anything. The introduction introduces a bunch of terms that are necessary for common communication about the HTTP environment and its participants. There are many things that can be abstracted together to form the "user agent", just as there are many things that can be abstracted together to form an origin server. I included "gateway" specifically because people kept confusing such things with a proxy. I have a ton of ideas on how to rewrite the introduction to make the abstractions a little more clear, and another ton of ideas on how to reorganize the entire specification to make it readable, but have neither the time nor the patience to restart the standards process. BTW, the chain of communication is the only form described because all other forms can be reduced to a chain for the purpose of discussing the HTTP semantics. ....Roy
Received on Wednesday, 25 February 1998 13:17:55 UTC