Changeset 2162 for draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p2-semantics.html

Timestamp:

Jan 25, 2013, 5:00:05 AM (7 years ago)

Author:

fielding@…

Message:

(editorial) rewrite the oldest (and most awkward) sentence remaining from the original HTTP spec of 1993

File:

• draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p2-semantics.html (modified) (1 diff)

draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p2-semantics.html

@@ -1380 +1380 @@
       <h3 id="rfc.section.4.3.1"><a href="#rfc.section.4.3.1">4.3.1</a>&nbsp;<a id="GET" href="#GET">GET</a></h3>
       <div id="rfc.iref.g.16"></div>
-      <p id="rfc.section.4.3.1.p.1">The GET method requests transfer of the selected representation for the <a href="#resources" class="smpl">target resource</a>. GET is the primary mechanism of information retrieval and the focus of almost all performance optimizations. Hence, when
+      <p id="rfc.section.4.3.1.p.1">The GET method requests transfer of a current selected representation for the <a href="#resources" class="smpl">target resource</a>. GET is the primary mechanism of information retrieval and the focus of almost all performance optimizations. Hence, when
          people speak of retrieving some identifiable information via HTTP, they are generally referring to making a GET request.
       </p>
-      <p id="rfc.section.4.3.1.p.2">If the target resource is a data-producing process, the produced data will be sent as the representation, not the source text
-         of the process, unless that text happens to be the output of the process.
+      <p id="rfc.section.4.3.1.p.2">It is tempting to think of resource identifiers as remote filesystem pathnames, and of representations as being a copy of
+         the contents of such files. In fact, that is how many resources are implemented (see <a href="#attack.pathname" title="Attacks Based On File and Path Names">Section&nbsp;9.1</a> for related security considerations). However, there are no such limitations in practice. The HTTP interface for a resource
+         is just as likely to be implemented as a tree of content objects, a programmatic view on various database records, or a gateway
+         to other information systems. Even when the URI mapping mechanism is tied to a filesystem, an origin server might be configured
+         to execute the files with the request as input and send the output as the representation, rather then transfer the files directly.
+         Regardless, only the origin server needs to know how each of its resource identifiers correspond to an implementation, and
+         how each implementation manages to select and send a current representation of the target resource in a response to GET.
       </p>
       <p id="rfc.section.4.3.1.p.3">A client can alter the semantics of GET to be a "range request", requesting transfer of only some part(s) of the selected