Subject: list item separator

From: "Stanley Guan" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 10:30:12 -0700

As shown in the Example, list items are separated by ",".
Is this implied by the notation "1*"?  Why "," is not 
explicitly specified in the derivation rules?  Can we use
space character instead of "," as separator?

Thx,

-Stanley

9.5 If Header 
    
   If = "If" ":" ( 1*No-tag-list | 1*Tagged-list) 
   No-tag-list = List 
   Tagged-list = Resource 1*List 
   Resource = Coded-URL 
   List = "(" 1*(["Not"](State-token | "[" entity-tag "]")) ")" 
   State-token = Coded-URL  
   Coded-URL = "<" absoluteURI ">" 
    
9.5.4   Example - Tagged List If header 
    
     COPY /resource1 HTTP/1.1 
     Host: www.example.com 
     Destination: http://www.example.com/resource2 
     If: <http://www.example.com/resource1> (<locktoken:a-write-lock-
     token> [W/"A weak ETag"]), (["strong ETag"]), 
     <http://www.bar.bar/random>(["another strong ETag"])

---

From: Lisa Dusseault <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 10:04:39 -0700

I'm a little confused.  Which document are you looking at, RFC2518 or 
RFC2518 bis (and if so, which draft?)

RFC2518 doesn't support commas in the If header, which is unfortunate 
because it doesn't allow the sender to split the header up into several 
headers. Normal HTTP composition rules allow the sender to do that, and 
the entire header is reconstructed by adding in commas.

Lisa

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From: "Stanley Guan" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 14:19:43 -0700

Lisa,

I am looking at RFC2518 bis-05!

My question is why list item separator (",") was 
not explicitly shown in the derivation rules.  Is
it because it is implicitly implied?

BTW, what's the current status RFC2518 bis?

Thx,

-Stanley

---

From: Lisa Dusseault <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 14:56:17 -0700

Sorry, I get it now.   HTTP headers often allow commas as separators.  
The If header doesn't originally  include commas, and it would be 
useful to allow commas so that the If header can be split across 
multiple lines.

In draft rfc2518bis-03 I tried to alter the If header so that commas 
would be allowable.  I didn't do a complete job of this, apparently -- 
the syntax is wrong.  (Then again, I can't quite see how the original 
RFC2518 syntax definition allows the given examples, either.)

Since HTTP uses the syntax "# ( comma-separated-item )", I guess it 
would be:

If = "If" ":" (1* No-tag-list | 1*Tagged-List)
No-tag-list = List
Tagged-list = Resource 1*List
Resource = Coded-URL
List = #(  "(" List | State-token ")" )
State-token = Coded-URL | "[" entity-tag "]"
Coded-URL = "<" absoluteURI ">"

Does that look correct?  Let me know if it does...

The current state of RFC2518bis is that we got blocked on a couple 
issues for which we couldn't determine consensus at the time.  I do 
have a few changes that could go into a -06 but not a lot.  The issues 
list itself needs updating, and there's not a lot of participation.  
I'm talking to Patrik and Ted and others about what we should focus on 
next now that ACLs is done. I'd welcome your feedback on this planning.

Lisa