Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1997 10:37:57 -0800 (PST)
From: Alexei Kosut <akosut@nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us>
To: new-httpd@hyperreal.com
Subject: Re: more byterange/PDF data - solution and patch included
In-Reply-To: <9702061013.aa17212@gonzo.ben.algroup.co.uk>
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On Thu, 6 Feb 1997, Ben Laurie wrote:

> Alexei Kosut wrote:
> > The long-term solution is to get Netscape to fix it. Does anyone have
> > some sort of casual relationship with any of the Navigator engineers,
> > and could email them personally? I've never seen Netscape take their
> > technical bug reports seriously (yet whenver I've suggested a cosmetic
> > feature through their bug-report form, it somehow appears in the next
> > release *sigh*), so the personal touch may be what's required. If no
> > one has connections there, I suppose I could try random emailing of
> > people listed in the about box...
> 
> I've had some success with direct communication with Netscape persons. If you
> want to knock up a short summary of the problem (I'd do it, but I might get it
> wrong), I can give it a try...

Rob seems to have forwarded my email to Jamie, but here's a summary
anyhow:

The HTTP/1.1 specification defines a method of requesting and
retreiving byteranges. It specifies the return media type of a
multipart byterange as multipart/byteranges. However, Netscape
Navigator 2 and 3 adhere to a slightly earlier specification, which
uses almost identical semantics (including an identical request
syntax), but expect multipart/x-byteranges instead. If a server returns
multipart/byteranges, as per the HTTP/1.1 spec, Navigator cannot
understand the response, and has unexpected behavior.

The result is that any server implementing the HTTP/1.1 specification
for byte ranges (including Apache 1.2) will not be compatible with
Navigator. We will include a workaround in 1.2b7 that will make Apache
work with Navigator, but the problem is really Netscape's, and should
it should be fixed: Navigator should be prepared to accept
multipart/byteranges as well as multipart/x-byteranges. The rest of
Navigator's byterange-handling appears to be correct; this is the only
sticking point.

-- 
________________________________________________________________________
Alexei Kosut <akosut@nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us>      The Apache HTTP Server
URL: http://www.nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us/~akosut/   http://www.apache.org/