Resources always exist

• From: Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net>
• Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 12:43:35 -0700
• To: uri <uri@w3.org>
• Message-ID: <3D80EE67.9070203@prescod.net>

Roy Fielding wrote:
> 
> The mapping is the resource and the resource always exists, which is
> is why 404 Not Found does not imply that the resource does not exist,
> but rather says that no current representation of the resource exists
> at the time of the request.

But the HTTP spec says:

 > The DELETE method requests that the origin server delete the resource
 > identified by the Request-URI.

What does "delete the resource" mean if resources always exist? Should 
DELETE be understood to clear the mapping from resources to representations?

  Paul Prescod

Received on Thursday, 12 September 2002 15:44:07 UTC