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Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 22:19:07 -0700
From: Justin Erenkrantz <jerenkrantz@ebuilt.com>
To: Jon Travis <jtravis@covalent.net>
Cc: apr-dev@apache.org
Subject: Re: Observations on fragmentation in SMS pools
Message-ID: <20010709221907.E2369@ebuilt.com>
References: <20010710012924.O18140@angua.rince.de>
 <Pine.LNX.4.30.0107091647300.27684-100000@koj.rkbloom.net>
 <20010709201426.B1138@covalent.net>
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 from jtravis@covalent.net on Mon, Jul 09, 2001 at 08:14:26PM -0700

On Mon, Jul 09, 2001 at 08:14:26PM -0700, Jon Travis wrote:
> Tables should definitely be moved to APR-util if they are to remain.  As
> for Apache, there are better structures that dictate general order than
> the table.  IMNSHO, the only reason tables are still in Apache is inertia.
> Nobody wants to go through and change everything to a more sane data
> structure.  Case insensitive searches -- linear search time over the
> table ... ugh.  

One problem with hash tables is that if you want to retrieve a HTTP
header, you now need to have it be the same case as it came in (unless
you are normalizing every call).  RFC 2616 states that (Section 4.2):

"Field names are case-insensitive."

Therefore, if the client sends:

CoNnEcTiOn: Keep-Alive

it should respect that.  And, this data structure is primarily used for 
storing HTTP header info (I'm not sure about mod_mime).  I'm not aware 
of any browsers that do this, but I'd bet someone will because the RFC 
says you can.  (It's possible I'm misinterpreting the RFC, wouldn't be 
the first time...)

AFAICT, this doesn't call for a true hash table or a true array.  It's 
something slightly different.  Any data structure which replaces tables 
needs to be able to handle the case-insensitivity gracefully.

Just want to make sure that any solution keeps us correct to the RFC.  
-- justin