Fwd: proposed short-term changes to TCS

I believe this is the archived email that Roy was referencing on the call today. I have removed the parts non-relevant to the Network Transaction discussion.

-brad

Begin forwarded message:

Resent-From: <public-tracking@w3.org<mailto:public-tracking@w3.org>>
From: "Roy T. Fielding" <fielding@gbiv.com<mailto:fielding@gbiv.com>>
Subject: proposed short-term changes to TCS
Date: September 20, 2013 4:20:11 PM PDT
To: "public-tracking@w3.org<mailto:public-tracking@w3.org> (public-tracking@w3.org<mailto:public-tracking@w3.org>)" <public-tracking@w3.org<mailto:public-tracking@w3.org>>

...

 2.3 Network Transaction

  A network interaction is the set of HTTP requests and responses, or any
  other sequence of logically related network traffic caused by a user visit
  to a single web page or similar single action. Page re-loads, navigation,
  and refreshing of content cause a new network interaction to commence.

Section header does not match the defined term.  The defined term does
not make any sense (a network interaction is any message).  The second
sentence needs to be prefixed with "For example, ..."; and "Page re-load"
is a subset of "refreshing of content".

If we want to make requirements on any network interaction, then we
should make them on any sent message, or use "network interaction"
exclusively for single request/response pairs.

If we want to make requirements on a set of network interactions that
result from a single user action, then we should come up with a term
for that (i.e., "user action").

If we want to differentiate between a browser's initial resource
request (initiated by user action) and the sequence of automated
redirects and embedded subrequests that follow as a direct result
of how the browser is instructed or configured to process the results
of those interactions, then we should come up with specific terms
for each of those things.  Note that those interactions are often
caused by configuration outside the referring site's control, such
as how the browser is implemented, what plug-ins have been installed,
what proxies are defined, what accessibility options have been
enabled, and so on; so, we might need to differentiate between
subrequests caused by the user (i.e., "configured requests") and
subrequests caused by content received as the result of an interaction
that instructs the user agent (i.e., "embedded requests"). *phew*

…

Cheers,

Roy T. Fielding                     <http://roy.gbiv.com/>
Senior Principal Scientist, Adobe   <https://www.adobe.com/>