RE: On pipelining -Reply

Miles Sabin (msabin@cromwellmedia.co.uk)
Fri, 21 Jan 2000 17:39:55 -0000 

Christopher K. St. John wrote,
> SHOULD (in the rfc2119 sense) is unfortunately the operative
> word here. GET's idempotence is a SHOULD, not a MUST. 
> Reference rfc2616, section 9.1.1. 

Not at all. I don't see anything there, or anywhere else, which
states that GETs idempotence is optional.

All it says is that GET "SHOULD NOT have any significance other 
than retreival". That's a *very* long way from permitting side-
effects. It allows but discourages, for example, a server
making a rude noise when it handles a GET ... but that's not 
state.

Cheers,


Miles

-- 
Miles Sabin                       Cromwell Media
Internet Systems Architect        5/6 Glenthorne Mews
+44 (0)20 8817 4030               London, W6 0LJ, England
msabin@cromwellmedia.com          http://www.cromwellmedia.com/