Re: disabling header compression

On 13/12/13 17:44, David Morris wrote:
> I don't agree with the conclusion you reach from the HTTP/1 space.
> 
> HTTP/1 has been all over the map because there were multiple ways
> to do the same thing (compression). The lesson I get is that we
> need clear unambigous specifcation of the options that are defined.
> 
> Our design intent needs to remain replacing all possible requirement
> for continuing use of HTTP/1.x. Mandatory support for header compression
> will reduce adoption for the large space of devices which won't perceive
> any significant value because of their particular use cases.
> 
> Being able to turn off header compression will make failure analysis
> triage easier, and it will allow for more comprehensive performance
> comparision.
> 
> My second point is that it should be easy to substitute an alternative
> algorithm. We need to measure and compare alternatives.
> 
> I believe header compression is a very good idea, I'm not convinced that
> the current algorithm is the best we can do.

Not compressing headers is simply a value of zero in the
compressing-headers space. We cannot know that there will not be a
better header compression algorithm developed tomorrow, and we shouldn't
prevent such an algorithm from becoming a de facto standard. If you
grant that header compression may take more than one form, it seems
logical to allow no compression also since there may be use cases that
support it.

Received on Friday, 13 December 2013 18:05:19 UTC