Re: [hybi] WebSockets

"Roy T. Fielding" <fielding@gbiv.com> Tue, 31 March 2009 01:42 UTC

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From: "Roy T. Fielding" <fielding@gbiv.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:43:55 -0700
To: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
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Cc: hybi@ietf.org
Subject: Re: [hybi] WebSockets
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On Mar 30, 2009, at 2:34 PM, Ian Hickson wrote:

> The goal of the WebSocket work is to provide two-way communication  
> from a
> Web page in a clean way.

It would be nice to have a list of use cases for why anyone would want
a Web page (as opposed to an installed client or client extension) to
provide two-way communication, and also why that two-way communication
must be tunneled over the Web ports in a way that deliberately intends
to fool security-enforcing intermediaries into thinking it is HTTP.

I know that Netscape and Macromedia/Adobe and MS have provided various
such features (and their associated security holes) over the years, but
I've never found the need to copy them within a Web page.  It would be
nice to put the rationale out there before the protocol.

....Roy