From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Robert J. Chassell" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Do you understand this? Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2005 18:41:46 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <87sm38jyhm.fsf@tapsellferrier.co.uk> <422C8B23.109@gnu.org> <87hdjnotzo.fsf@tapsellferrier.co.uk> Reply-To: bob@rattlesnake.com NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1110309559 25388 80.91.229.2 (8 Mar 2005 19:19:19 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2005 19:19:19 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Mar 08 20:19:19 2005 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1D8kAn-0004w0-8f for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 08 Mar 2005 20:15:18 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1D8kPJ-0004hP-JA for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 08 Mar 2005 14:30:17 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1D8kMg-0003fF-Pq for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Mar 2005 14:27:34 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1D8kMe-0003eT-U3 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Mar 2005 14:27:34 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1D8kG1-0002GV-O2 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Mar 2005 14:20:41 -0500 Original-Received: from [69.168.108.225] (helo=rattlesnake.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1D8jeS-0003yc-3Z for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Mar 2005 13:41:52 -0500 Original-Received: by rattlesnake.com via sendmail from stdin id (Debian Smail3.2.0.115) Tue, 8 Mar 2005 18:41:46 +0000 (UTC) Original-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org In-reply-to: <87hdjnotzo.fsf@tapsellferrier.co.uk> (message from Nic Ferrier on Tue, 08 Mar 2005 00:34:51 +0000) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org X-MailScanner-To: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:34337 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:34337 Regarding HTTP/1.1 Accept: and Accept-Charset: statements, Nic Ferrier wrote I find this confusing. I understand what you are saying about commas and semi-colons... but I think it is a red herring in terms of better documentation. You seem to be trying to explain the HTTP rfc in an elisp comment. At the very least, some comment in the Emacs Lisp sources should tell people that ;; In contrast to their precedence in English text, commas ;; separate _bigger_ groupings than semi-colons, which are used to ;; prefix weightings or priority values. Sections 14.1 and 14.2 of rfc2616 only list semi-colons in the BNF. The reverse English language convention is so strong that the protocol specification ought to be mentioned in another part of the RFC; and since it is not, in an Emacs comment. While we are mentioning the precedence convention, we might as well add the rest: ;; Priority values go from 0.0 to 1.0, with 1.0 being highest. ;; When a priority or weighting value is not listed the value is ;; presumed to be 1.0. Moreover, an `Accept:' or `Accept-Charset' ;; list need not be in priority or precedence order. You ask Why can't you just say: ;; An `Accept' or `Accept-Charset' header may be specified in the ;; form described in rfc2616 section 14.1 and 14.2. That is fine, in addition to the segment above. In addition it is worth stating that ;; Accept: text/plain; q=0.5, ;; text/html, ;; text/x-dvi; q=0.8, ;; text/x-c can be reformatted as ;; Accept: text/plain; q=0.5, ;; text/x-dvi; q=0.8, ;; text/html ; q=1.0, ;; text/x-c ; q=1.0 This will make understanding easier for the person who comes on all this in 10 or 20 years. Normally I want Accept-Charset to be sent to an HTTP server based on an automatically computed list from Emacs' available character sets. Yes -- that is a good reason to put comments in the relevant source. -- Robert J. Chassell bob@rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8 http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc