[XMLHttpRequest] LC-20080415 comment

"Anne van Kesteren" <annevk@opera.com> wrote:

> The draft is located here:
> 
>    http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-XMLHttpRequest-20080415/

I have just one comment on a first reading through:


In the last paragraph on send(data) (i.e. just above the start of the bit
about the abort() method), there is a statement (which is missing the word
"header" at the end, but that's not the point I wish to raise)  :

  "it MUST NOT automatically set the Accept."

I think that this is a bad idea, because some servers fail to deliver
resources in the absence of the Accept header where the resource has
multiple variants available.  Some older versions of IIS are known to fail
in this manner.  There may be others that I'm not aware of too, obviously.

Therefore, in the interests of web compatibility, I think that this should
be restated to something like:

  'If the Accept header is not set using setRequestHeader(), user agents
   MUST provide it automatically with the value "*/*".

I'd be prepared to concede downgrading the MUST to a SHOULD or a MAY
provided that the value is still fixed:

  'If the Accept header is not set using setRequestHeader(), user agents
   SHOULD provide it automatically.  User agents MUST use the value "*/*" if
   the header is being provided automatically.'



-- 
Stewart Brodie
Software Engineer
ANT Software Limited

Received on Wednesday, 16 April 2008 11:09:15 UTC