Re: CERN httpd and libwww 2.14 released

George Phillips <phillips@cs.ubc.ca>
Date: 16 Nov 93 11:11 -0800
From: George Phillips <phillips@cs.ubc.ca>
To: <luotonen@ptsun00.cern.ch>
Cc: <www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch>
In-reply-to: <9311161550.AA00665@ptsun03.cern.ch>
Message-id: <6849*phillips@cs.ubc.ca>
Subject: Re: CERN httpd and libwww 2.14 released
Ari Luotonen says:
> |		- currently is also compatible with NCSA server with
> |		  the exception of parameter unescaping

I wouldn't call it compatible if they differ on something so basic
as whether the arguments are unescaped or not.  There's a bigger
problem though -- NCSA's script interface is still a moving target.
It's not going to move far and it will be making some important
changes, but if CERN's script interface is frozen, it'll have
a hard time changing to be compatible.

I think this underscores why we really need something like a
SCRIPT_PROTO environment variable so that portable (between servers)
gateway scripts can be written.

While I'm whining, it occurs to me that it'd be useful for a script
to have some way of knowing what method it is doing.  NCSA HTTPD
seems to cover this now by having different GET and POST scripts.
This is workable, but tossing in something to let the script
explicitly know (environment variable?) would be nice and would
make the external gateway scripts easier to run under the x-exec:
URL scheme.

I hate to dote on this, but the ability to share stuff between servers
is important.  Even if the server's don't exactly agree, it would
be nice if either portable scripts are possible or if Plexus can
support every script interface under the sun.

			-- George