16 Acknowledgments

This specification makes heavy use of the augmented BNF and generic constructs defined by David H. Crocker for RFC 822 [9]. Similarly, it reuses many of the definitions provided by Nathaniel Borenstein and Ned Freed for MIME [7]. We hope that their inclusion in this specification will help reduce past confusion over the relationship between HTTP and Internet mail message formats.

The HTTP protocol has evolved considerably over the years. It has benefited from a large and active developer community--the many people who have participated on the www-talk mailing list--and it is that community which has been most responsible for the success of HTTP and of the World-Wide Web in general. Marc Andreessen, Robert Cailliau, Daniel W. Connolly, Bob Denny, John Franks, Jean-Francois Groff, Phillip M. Hallam-Baker, Hakon W. Lie, Ari Luotonen, Rob McCool, Lou Montulli, Dave Raggett, Tony Sanders, and Marc VanHeyningen deserve special recognition for their efforts in defining early aspects of the protocol.

This document has benefited greatly from the comments of all those participating in the HTTP-WG. In addition to those already mentioned, the following individuals have contributed to this specification:

       Gary Adams                  Ross Patterson

       Harald Tveit Alvestrand     Albert Lunde

       Keith Ball                  John C. Mallery

       Brian Behlendorf            Jean-Philippe Martin-Flatin

       Paul Burchard               Mitra

       Maurizio Codogno            David Morris

       Mike Cowlishaw              Gavin Nicol

       Roman Czyborra              Bill Perry

       Michael A. Dolan            Jeffrey Perry

       David J. Fiander            Scott Powers

       Alan Freier                 Owen Rees

       Marc Hedlund                Luigi Rizzo

       Greg Herlihy                David Robinson

       Koen Holtman                Marc Salomon

       Alex Hopmann                Rich Salz

       Bob Jernigan                Allan M. Schiffman

       Shel Kaphan                 Jim Seidman

       Rohit Khare                 Chuck Shotton

       John Klensin                Eric W. Sink

       Martijn Koster              Simon E. Spero

       Alexei Kosut                Richard N. Taylor

       David M. Kristol            Robert S. Thau

       Daniel LaLiberte            Bill (BearHeart) Weinman

       Ben Laurie                  Francois Yergeau

       Paul J. Leach               Mary Ellen Zurko

       Daniel DuBois               Josh Cohen

Much of the content and presentation of the caching design is due to suggestions and comments from individuals including: Shel Kaphan, Paul Leach, Koen Holtman, David Morris, and Larry Masinter.

Most of the specification of ranges is based on work originally done by Ari Luotonen and John Franks, with additional input from Steve Zilles.

Thanks to the "cave men" of Palo Alto. You know who you are.

Jim Gettys (the current editor of this document) wishes particularly to thank Roy Fielding, the previous editor of this document, along with John Klensin, Jeff Mogul, Paul Leach, Dave Kristol, Koen Holtman, John Franks, Josh Cohen, Alex Hopmann, Scott Lawrence, and Larry Masinter for their help. And thanks go particularly to Jeff Mogul and Scott Lawrence for performing the "MUST/MAY/SHOULD" audit.

The Apache Group, Anselm Baird-Smith, author of Jigsaw, and Henrik Frystyk implemented RFC 2068 early, and we wish to thank them for the discovery of many of the problems that this document attempts to rectify.