HTTP: Why a new protocol? (original) (raw)
Existing protocols cover a number of different tasks.
- Mail protocols allow the transfer of transient messages from a single author to a small number of recipients, at the request of the author.
- File transfer protocols allow the transfer of data at the request of either the sender or receiver, but allow little processing of the data at the responding side.
- News protocols allow the broadcast of transient data to a wide audience.
- Search and Retrieve protocols allow index searches to be made, and allow document access. Few exist: Z39.50 is one and could be extended for our needs.
The protocol we need for information access (HTTP) must provide
- A subset of the file transfer functionality
- The ability to request an index search
- Automatic format negotiation.
- The ability to refer the client to another server
Tim Berners-Lee,
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