Re: Protocol Benchmarking (with Accept examples - long)

montulli@stat1.cc.ukans.edu (Lou Montulli)
From: montulli@stat1.cc.ukans.edu (Lou Montulli)
Message-id: <9402030037.AA23076@stat1.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: Protocol Benchmarking (with Accept examples - long)
To: atotic@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Alexsander Totic)
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 94 18:37:06 CST
Cc: altis@ibeam.jf.intel.com, koblas@netcom.com, mcrae@ora.com,
        www-talk@www0.cern.ch
In-reply-to: <9402022354.AA15398@void.ncsa.uiuc.edu>; from "Alexsander Totic" at Feb 2, 94 5:54 pm
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> 
> > 3. Should the transaction be reworked so that the server says I've got this
> > MIME type, then the client says YES or NO?
> 
> Not a bad idea. Maybe a two-stage process. The first request sends a list
> of types supported internally by the client (similar to Lynx), and if the
> choosen document is not determined to be one of these types, server requests
> a confirmation from the client that a non-standard type can be handled. Client
> could look up its master list, and if that fails ask the user if he really 
> wants to download an unusual data type.
> 
Since Kevin and I were discussing this about half an hour ago, I
might as well put in my 4 or 5 cents worth. (inflation :)

If the host sent back the type immediately after the client sends
the get, the client could check it's list of accepts to see if
it's an acceptable type, for instance "image/jpeg".  
If the type is acceptable, the client responds, "OK
send me the data", otherwise the client says "I don't understand
image/jpeg" but I do understand "image/gif and image/x-xbm".
If the server can deliver those types then he sends the data,
if not then the server may attempt a different sub-group, for
instance "application/x-mac-draw".  In each case the client
would only send the accept header of the specified sub-group,
thereby saving the broadcast of a very large group of accepts.

This form of negotiation would also be useful for Authorization,
charge back, etc., since each of them would benifit by not
having to open the connection twice.  (currently Authorization
must first be rejected by an authorized server and then retry
with a password)

:lou