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Re: idempotent POSTs

• To: "Ramin Firoozye" <ramin@w...>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: Re: idempotent POSTs
• From: "Didier PH Martin" <martind@n...>
• Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 19:10:18 -0400
• References: <NDBBLNCOMCPLKABNJBLKIEIHFMAA.ramin@w...>

Hi Ramin,

Ramin said:
> Actually, even if you do a GET to the database, if it goes through an
> intermediary function (like a servlet) it will end up changing the
resource.
> The logging business changing state is a side-issue which gets you into
> Schroedinger's Cat-like spaces (:-)
>
> Almost any application-based web-site uses GET to invoke backing code, be
it
> CGI-BIN, Servlet, JSP, ASP, CML, etc. And *that* code has lots of
> side-effects in both modifying state and invoking code that modifies
state.
>
> The original intent behind the idempotence of GET made sense when
resources
> were limited to documents. But in an application-based environment, GET
and
> PUT have become shorthands for 'short' vs. 'long' CALL frames, where
> GET-based requests are limited to URL size and PUT is not.

Didier replies:
Thanks Ramin, yes this is the reality. At the other end of the URI is either
a document or an application. If it is an application and since somebody
(guess who) created a way to emulate a command line with a GET + param, then
off course we ended with about anything that could be called with a command
line and about any kind of action possible with an application. Bottom line.

Now trying to speak about indempotency of the GET method is a bit trying to
change the past, try to modify the huge legacy left over and start over. You
are right Ramin, time is unidirectional (at least until now and within our
current technical limitations - And if it is possible we will have to revise
the thermodynamic laws). Millions of developers saw a GET + param like a
command line. They perceived URLs not as an abstract namespace representing
an abstract notion of resource but more as a simple remote command line. Off
course this is what they knew.

Thanks Ramin for such common sense.

cheers
Didier PH Martin

• References:
  • RE: idempotent POSTs
    • From: "Ramin Firoozye" <ramin@w...>

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