- From: Jonathan Rees <jar@creativecommons.org>
- Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:34:00 -0400
- To: HTTP Working Group <ietf-http-wg@w3.org>
I note in the description of GET http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics-16#section-7.3 that the word "retrieve" does not occur in describing the general case (it only occurs in the description of partial GET). Maybe it is obvious that if a representation of a resource is transferred, then it is retrieved. But I think it would be cleaner if consistent terminology were used. RFC 3986 speaks of retrieval, and (in my understanding) GET is the canonical instantiation of this idea. The HTTP spec speaks of "retrieval" in other places (such as under OPTIONS and safe methods). It would be nice to cement the connection by using the word somewhere in the description of what GET does. For example, instead of saying The GET method requests transfer of a current representation of the target resource. one might say The GET method requests retrieval of a current representation of the target resource. (although if this is incorrect, misleading, or incomplete I'm sure there is some other way to make the connection between GET/200 and retrieval). Along the same lines I see 7.2 OPTIONS says "resource retrieval" and 7.5 POST says "retrieve a resource". This is confusing, given that 3986 says that it is representations that are retrieved, and says nothing about resources being retrieved. I have not been following every post to this list so my apologies if this has already been discussed. I also heard a rumor that this section was being rewritten, so just consider this comment as input to the rewriting. Thanks Jonathan
Received on Thursday, 22 September 2011 15:34:28 UTC