Re: HTTP2 spec

Marc Andreessen (marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu)
Tue, 5 Jan 93 11:00:21 -0800


Dave_Raggett writes:
> I hope to give more detailed feedback soon, but an immediate suggestion is
> to include a size field giving the number of bytes in the complete message
> (or an estimate). This would allow the browser to show a gauge indicating
> how much of the message has been received at any time (I want to temporarily
> replace the vertical scroll bar by a bas-relief thermometer). The gauge
> would only be shown if this size field is present.

I agree; a size field is almost essential -- particularly considering
how big hypermedia documents are going to get.

> My suggestion is that part of the message header is sent before beginning
> the document conversion (or whatever). The remainder and the document body
> content is sent later. The part of the header sent earlier on includes a
> processing attribute, e.g. "Processing: converting to html ..."

Another possibility for increased ergonomics is to provide for the
transfer of the first several paragraphs of a large document prior to
transfer of the rest of the document, so the use has something to look
at while the bulk of the communication is taking place.

Cheers,
Marc