Re: [hybi] #1: HTTP Compliance

[Ian Hickson <[e-mail]>]

On Mon, 17 May 2010, Greg Wilkins wrote:
>
> The server is going to have to send responses and is currently faced 
> with a difficult (or impossible) choice between sending a HTTP compliant 
> or a websocket compliant response.

If the server is a Web Socket server, and it received a request from a 
Web Socket client, then why would it care about HTTP?

If the server is not a Web Socket server, then why would it ever consider 
sending a response back using Web Sockets?

If the server is aware of Web Sockets and HTTP, and gets a request from an 
HTTP client, then why would it respond with Web Sockets?

I really don't understand what the choice is. In every situation I can 
see, there's an unambiguous right response.


> A client is going to see non 101 HTTP responses - no matter if we rule 
> that is non websocket compliant.

I don't know what you mean by "non websocket compliant" here. If the 
server isn't a Web Socket server, it can't possibly violate the Web Socket 
spec, since it isn't a conformance class that the Web Socket spec covers. 
The spec says how the client should handle non-Web Socket responses, it's 
not non-conforming to handle them.


> In reality, clients and servers are going to have to talk compliant HTTP 
> to each other to deal with these cases - regardless of whatever the 
> protocol spec says.

I have no idea what this means.


> Servers will send 4xx and 5xx responses and clients will correctly 
> interpret them.

Web Socket servers will not send 4xx and 5xx responses.


> So you can continue to pretend that these conversations will never 
> actually happen.... but that will not change the reality that they will.

Why would they happen?

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'