Re: ISSUE-47: responseText is not always accessible when readyState < 3

We agreed at the F2F that version 1.0 of the spec should focus on what 
works now and what content authors can rely on for interoperability. 
Anything else should be left as unconstrained and possibly marked as 
under review for version 2.0

> And what exactly do I have to implement? I think the specification should 
> remain unchanged as what is currently specified is a sane thing to do. 
> Unless of course there is some interoperability between the majority of 
> browsers that is different from that what is specified.

You're right, it's the sane thing, but it doesn't reflect reality. One 
major browser throws an exception where we say it shouldn't. That means 
that content authors can't rely on the behaviour we're specifying which 
I believe lowers the utility of the text.

> 
> Could you please submit the testcase you created so we run it in browsers?

I will do shortly. Hopefullt I'll be able to check it in soon. I have 
almost the same problem with the next test I've written: IE6 thows an 
exception if you access statusText in readyState 3, FF1.5 doesn't.

> 
> The above text could be used for the authoring guidelines though, I guess. 
> It seems important to tell people you can't currently rely on what 
> responseText its getter will do when readyState is not 3 or 4.
> 
I'd rather we wrote down what is reliable now and marked 
incompatibilities as likely to be tightened up in the next version. I 
think it's better to have a smaller spec that is accurate and  released 
early.

Ian

Received on Monday, 20 March 2006 15:14:51 UTC