Re: HTTP Methods

> Am I being overly alarmist that we're slipping
> into a two-methods-only-web, or is this a legitimate problem?

A bit of both I think. There is a legitimate problem of people not knowing as
much about HTTP as they possibly should, and that isn't just limited to
methods. This affects both how well new technologies are being specified and
how current technologies are being implemented and used by developers.

However PUT, DELETE, TRACE et al. are alive and well in many areas. They'll
never be as commonly used as GET (even POST won't), because there'll never be as
many people in an active (writing, modifying) position to most sites as in a
passive one (reading, downloading). Of course, lots of people at least
implement (if not use) HEAD without even realising it as the system they are
using generates the HEAD result from their code for generating GET.

What's more I've seen an increasing desire on the part of many people to know
more about HTTP and to be able to feel confident that they are using it to the
full (I'm working on a tutorial to help such people at the not-quite-newbie
level, if you don't mind I'll run that by you when it's finished since you
share a concern about how well HTTP is being used) which I think comes partly
from a maturation of the industry, partly from REST hype and partly from the
notion that doing HTTP well will make google like you (which doesn't really
come in to anything that isn't done my GET, but hey - it's still progress). On
that basis I feel optimistic.

-- 
Jon Hanna
<http://www.hackcraft.net/>
*Thought provoking quote goes here*

Received on Tuesday, 24 February 2004 12:48:57 UTC