[email protected] writes: > Looking at RFC 2616, I was thinking HTTP 404 "WWWOFFLE - Will Get" is > not really the same as HTTP 404 "Not Found", which some browsers (e.g., > emacs-w3m) treat as real bad. > > Therefore, wwwoffle.conf should perhaps allow one to tamper with (all) > the (different) HTTP Status Codes WWWOFFLE returns, as one might want to > pick e.g., for "WWWOFFLE - Will Get", one of > 202 Accepted > 306 (Unused) > 408 Request Timeout > 409 Conflict > 504 Gateway Timeout > or maybe that is all just asking for more trouble.
The advantage of choosing a common error code rather than an unusual one is that you can be sure that browsers will handle it rather than ignore it or do something strange. The description of the coded 202 "Accepted" does sound like a good fit to what WWWOFFLE does. The 3XX codes are all redirections and the HTTP RFC says that they require the client to take further action which makes them not a good fit. The codes 408 and 409 suggest that the client may try and fix the apparent problem which would be the wrong thing to do. The 504 code might also be suitable for what WWWOFFLE is really saying. I don't think that it would be a good choice to make the change now. Time has proven that the 404 code works well. This is the first time that it has been suggested to me that a different status code would be better. -- Andrew. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew M. Bishop [email protected] http://www.gedanken.demon.co.uk/ WWWOFFLE users page: http://www.gedanken.demon.co.uk/wwwoffle/version-2.9/user.html
