Re: Resources always exist

Roy T. Fielding wrote:
> ...
> 
> Yes, but as far as the interface is concerned they mean the same thing.
> What is the difference between a resource that is DELETEd and later PUT,
> versus one that has no mapped representations between those two events?

If you DELETE something twice, you usually expect an error message or a 
core dump. If you clear a list twice, you usually expect the second 
clearing to be a no-op. Also, if it is valid to clear the unmap 
representations from resources, why not have methods that allow me to 
unmap chosen representations instead of all of them.

> There are a lot of things not mentioned in the HTTP specification, for
> one reason or another unrelated to technology.

Some days it feels like exegesis: especially in the area of of the 
method definitions. A person can chew up hours on: "What does DELETE 
mean? What does PUT mean? What does POST mean? When is it appropriate to 
use which? Why do we have these particular methods and not others? Why 
not CREATE" etc. etc. ad nauseum

  Paul Prescod

Received on Tuesday, 17 September 2002 23:34:54 UTC