- From: Matthew Thomas <mpt@myrealbox.com>
- Date: Sun, 08 May 2005 14:25:52 +1200
James Graham wrote: >... > Consider the example of a webmail application. These often allow > messages to be retrieved by clicking on hyperlinks containing the > subject line*. This is apparently all well and good because retrieving a > message is sounds like a simple GET-friendly operation. Except that the > act of retrieving a message often has the side effect of marking the > message read in some way (not an unsafe operation per-se but one that > should only be initiated by a user). You're right, it's not an unsafe operation. A Web browser does this with links anyway, when it gives visited links a different color from unvisited ones. That doesn't mean it should, early-Arena-like, present all links as buttons. All the Webmail application is doing is retaining visited/unvisited presentation across whatever computer you log in to your Webmail from -- which is part of the point of it being a Web application in the first place. So that's not really a good example of a non-idempotent action, and therefore not a reason for specs to condone non-idempotent links. -- Matthew Thomas http://mpt.net.nz/
Received on Saturday, 7 May 2005 19:25:52 UTC