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Re: more politics

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: more politics
• From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>
• Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 11:57:53 -0400
• In-reply-to: <20030731152315.GT9926@s...>
• References: <oprssgstsbezizxn@s...> <009e01c35183$41d1f3f0$6401a8c0@tbp1> <20030724013426.GE22456@m...> <09d401c35240$1526e140$b6f5d3ce@s...> <20030725030717.GJ1890@m...> <3F20B5FD.1060304@t...> <20030725044526.GA2215@m...> <3F213555.7040108@t...> <20030729193913.GA8560@s...> <87wudybyjg.fsf@n...> <20030731152315.GT9926@s...>
• User-agent: Opera7.03/Win32 M2 build 2670

On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 11:23:15 -0400, John Cowan <jcowan@r...> 
wrote:

> Norman Walsh scripsit:
>
>> What if the GET drops a can of coke on your desk?
>
> Short of matter replication (Star Trek or Drexler varieties), it can't do
> that.  If the can is brought from somewhere else, that's a side effect,
> and GETs have to be idempotent and therefore side-effect-free.

Whoop! Whoop! Permathread warning ...

Uhh, GET's are *supposed* to be side-effect free, but that's not enforced 
by anything I'm aware of in a typical HTTP implementation.  I'm not at all 
sure that's true on the wild wild web, very definitely not in the case of 
pay-by-the-kilobyte wireless plans that have (well, "had" since I have an 
unlimited plan now) the side-effect of running up my cellphone bill every 
time I do a GET.  Likewise, A little View Source expedition on Amazon.com 
shows a lot of "method=get" forms that seem to have what I would call side 
effects.  (Fortunately, One-click ordering is not implemented with GET, but 
it *could* from a mechanical point of view, no?).

So, I assert that there is no real-world software reason why clicking on a 
link could not result in a can of Coke being delivered to one's desk, 
although that would clearly be a Bad Thing in terms of the Webarch and the 
HTTP spec.  Am I mistaken?

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: more politics
    • From: Jim Ancona <jim@a...>
  • Re: more politics
    • From: Robin Berjon <robin.berjon@e...>

• References:
  • Re: more politics
    • From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>
  • Re: more politics
    • From: "Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@c...>
  • Re: more politics
    • From: John Cowan <cowan@m...>
  • Re: more politics
    • From: "Jonathan Borden" <jonathan@o...>
  • Re: more politics
    • From: John Cowan <cowan@m...>
  • Re: more politics
    • From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
  • Re: more politics
    • From: John Cowan <cowan@m...>
  • Re: more politics
    • From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
  • Re: more politics
    • From: John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
  • Re: more politics
    • From: Norman Walsh <ndw@n...>
  • Re: more politics
    • From: John Cowan <jcowan@r...>

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