Re: text of description of "POST"

Oops, sorry, this one slipped by my radar until now.  I'll
redirect my response to ietf-http-wg@w3.org.

On Thu, Apr 04, 2002 at 07:22:39PM -0800, Larry Masinter wrote:
> Section 9.5 of RFC 2616 says:
> 
>    The POST method is used to request that the origin server accept the
>    entity enclosed in the request as a new subordinate of the resource
>    identified by the Request-URI in the Request-Line.
> 
> Now, later on in the section it notes that POST covers other cases, e.g.,
> 
>       - Providing a block of data, such as the result of submitting a
>         form, to a data-handling process;
> 
> but some people have taken the first sentence to be somehow
> definitional. ("is used" turning into "is only used" rather than
> "may be used").
> 
> So I would suggest changing this wording -- and even putting up an
>  errata -- that "The POST method is used to request that the origin
>  server accept the entity enclosed in the request as data to be
>  processed by the resource identified by the Request-URI in the
>  Request-Line."

I'll all for cleaning up the definition of POST, but IMO, proceeding
with text that has most often been cited by those who tunnel over POST
(IPP, SOAP), is the wrong way to go.

I could perhaps go for this definition if it were amended to say
something like; 

 "The POST method is used to request that the origin server accept
  the entity enclosed in the request as data to be processed by
  the resource identified by the Request-URI in the Request-Line.
  The entity SHOULD NOT include any instruction or direction to
  perform an action other than simple form-like submission."

MB
-- 
Mark Baker, Chief Science Officer, Planetfred, Inc.
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.      mbaker@planetfred.com
http://www.markbaker.ca   http://www.planetfred.com

Received on Tuesday, 23 April 2002 12:40:04 UTC