- From: John Kemp <john@jkemp.net>
- Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:43:19 -0400
- To: David Morris <dwm@xpasc.com>
- CC: Mark Nottingham <mnot@mnot.net>, Henrik Nordstrom <henrik@henriknordstrom.net>, Julian Reschke <julian.reschke@gmx.de>, 'HTTP Working Group' <ietf-http-wg@w3.org>
David Morris wrote: > > This is fun ;-:) ... following the logic below (I agree with the > differentiation between 'a' and 'the'), the list in a 405 response > should be THE list for that particular context ... While there may be > other methods allowed, even in the given context, the server should never > provide a different list for the same conditions. That's true. So for a given resource, there is no (or not necessarily, anyway) single list of allowed methods. The list returned is always contextual, and the context may vary (while the Request-URI remains the same). So either: "The Allow entity-header field lists the set of methods supported by the resource identified by the Request-URI" is missing the fact that "the set of methods supported" is contextual beyond the identification of the Request-URI, or: "The Allow entity-header field advertises a set of methods supported by the resource identified by the Request-URI." Regards, - johnk > > Dave Morris > > On Tue, 8 Apr 2008, John Kemp wrote: > >> Mark Nottingham wrote: >>> Not clear. My take (as a native American speaker who has been corrupted >>> to speak en-au sometimes) is that 'the' implies that there is only one >>> possible set. >> That's also my understanding as an en-gb native, corrupted to speak >> ~en-us/gb. >> >>> However, I'm not that fussed about it; I'm happy to give it to the >>> editors to decide (and I suspect they'll change it to 'the'). >>> >>> Unless someone has a good technical argument otherwise, and is >>> passionate enough about it to hold us up, we'll let them decide. >> No engineering-based technical argument, but I do think there is a clear >> semantic difference between 'a list' (one of a potential several) and >> 'the list' (the only list). Using 'a' implies (to me at least) that the >> server may maintain more than one list of allowed methods for the given >> resource, and return a particular list given particular circumstances. >> 'The' doesn't imply that to me. If we wish to imply by that sentence >> that there is no single list of allowed methods per resource, and we >> believe that anyone other than me will notice the difference, then using >> 'a' would make sense. >> >> Or, we could just let the editors decide ;) >> >> Regards, >> >> - john >> >>> >>> On 07/04/2008, at 9:39 AM, Henrik Nordstrom wrote: >>> >>>> sön 2008-04-06 klockan 13:57 +0200 skrev Julian Reschke: >>>> >>>>> I haven't heard any new feedback, so I propose that we go with this >>>>> proposal. >>>> Was there consensus on "the list" -> "a list" change? >>>> >>>> I have no opinion on that change as of now, but it looks odd to me (but >>>> may just be a language issue with English not being my native language) >>>> >>>> Regards >>>> Henrik >>>> >>> >>> -- >>> Mark Nottingham http://www.mnot.net/ >>> >>> >
Received on Wednesday, 9 April 2008 17:44:04 UTC