Re: [http-state] http-state charter

[Pascal Gaudette <[e-mail]>]

Hi all,

I'm very new to both this list and the IETF, but I wanted to ask a question
that might have been discussed in the past, possibly even face to face
during IETF meetings...

The members of this list are currently discussing what type of standards
document the WG might end up writing.  But has there been any thought given
to the development of a set of whitebox user-agent tests that could be
deployed on a domain and used to *document* currently deployed user-agent
behavior? (IE produce a table of observed behavior vrs user-agent and test
case.)

I would see this as a very useful deliverable for the working group to
produce prior to any specification document, and I can see myself adding
test cases to such a test suite (provided it is written in a language I am
familliar with).  I am currently in the process of trying to implement
cookie support in a simple user-agent as part of Google's Summer of Code and
such a suite would be very useful to me... Many members of this list
probably have extensive knowledge of user-agent behavior, both where they
converge and where they diverge.  Deploying such a test suite would allow
the gathering of all such knowledge in a single, public place.

Unless such a thing already exists, in which case I shall be very happy to
be provided with a pointer...

Just some thoughts,
-- 
Pascal Gaudette <[e-mail]>