- From: Larry Masinter <LMM@acm.org>
- Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 18:31:48 -0700
- To: "'Paul Prescod'" <paul@prescod.net>
- Cc: <www-tag@w3.org>
It was noted in the minutes of the TAG conference call that
there was a log of discussion but no counter-proposals. So
here's one. I suggest that the appropriate W3C TAG policy should
focus on the value:
Designs that use URIs as accessors for resources and
URI references as accessors for resource components are
better than those that don't.
and that the following guidelines could apply:
HTTP GET should be "safe" (because there are systems
and operations that rely on it being so)
When designing an interface to a safe operation, there
are significant advantages to using GET-able URLs
(e.g., with query strings).
There are some disadvantages to using GET with URLs
in HTTP, e.g., when the addressing information is
is large, difficult to encode, private or best
kept secret.
Whether or not GET with HTTP is used for the initial
access, supplying a URI for subsequent access to the
_same_ information, e.g., using Content-Location, is
useful.
I'm not opposed to URLs or linking, just to a finding that
jumps from a value ("URL linking is good") to a policy
("safe actions should use GET") without sufficient consideration
of the drawbacks or of the alternatives that might
accomplish the same goal without them.
Larry
--
http://larry.masinter.net
Received on Tuesday, 23 April 2002 21:32:37 UTC