Re: Call for Closure - HTTP response version

Alexei Kosut:
>
>On Tue, 31 Dec 1996, Koen Holtman wrote:
>
>> Dave Kristol:
>> >
>> >Let me make some assumptions.  They may be controversial, but I haven't
>> >seen substantial contradictory evidence:
>> >
>> >1) The HTTP/1.1 draft is clear about which HTTP/1.1 headers cannot be
>> >sent to HTTP/1.0 clients.
>> >
>> >2) If an HTTP/1.1 server sends a response labeled as HTTP/1.1, but with
>> >only HTTP/1.0-compatible headers, HTTP/1.0 clients will understand
>> >it.
>> 
>> Ugh.  I don't know what twist in this thread caused you to make those
>> assumptions, but they paint a completely wrong picture of the actual
>> situation.
>
>No, I don't think that's wrong. Dave's point 2) refers more to the
>"HTTP/1.1" label than the headers, 

??  I think it refers to headers.

>and point 1) is correct. 

Actually, Dave's point 2) is correct too, but it fails to mention that
1.0 clients will *also* understand responses which include all kinds
of headers *not* defined by HTTP/1.0.

>There are
>some headers that don't work with HTTP/1.0.  I guess they *could* be
>sent... but page 23 does say "A server MUST NOT send transfer-codings
>to an HTTP/1.0 client," for example.

A transfer encoding is an encoding of the message body, it is not a
header.  Even AOL's proxy did not break on the presence of a HTTP/1.1
header.  It broke on the the presence of the HTTP/1.1 version number.

>Alexei Kosut

Koen.

Received on Wednesday, 1 January 1997 09:13:12 UTC