RE: Dereferencing HTTP URIs (redux?)

Pat, thanks for this insightful summary.  A comment about a key point is below


Pat Hayes:
> Seen in this way, the 303 is not so much a 'signal' to the requesting
agent that the resource in question is, or might be, a
non-information resource - a signal which seems arbitrary, ad-hoc and
potentially confusing - but rather simply as an acknowledgement of
the fact that a non-information resource cannot *possibly*, by virtue
of its very nature, return a direct response to a GET request.

I agree with this point and think it is crucial to understand.  Having
the agent assume the nature of the original URI from a representation
which emphatically does *not* describe what is denoted by the original
URI seems problematic to me.  Frankly, HTTP is a transport protocol,
not a knowledge representation and cannot authoritatively dictate the
nature of a referent : especially one outside the domain it was
primarily setup to support (information resources).

Instead, a 303 response should be interpreted as a message (at the
level of the protocol) to follow this URL for more useful information
and nothing more.  Perhaps this caution is in sync with the original
'finding' - I certainly hope so.

-- Chimezie

Received on Wednesday, 5 September 2007 21:09:04 UTC