revised CGI/1.0 specification

Rob McCool (robm@ncsa.uiuc.edu)
Fri, 19 Nov 1993 16:46:58 -0600


I have revised the CGI/1.0 spec according to suggestions made on www-talk, so
please take a look at it. I have changed the name to CGI because it's really an
interface and not a protocol. I know, picky picky.

The passing of forms args is somewhat like what Ari does, for compatibility's
sake. For most forms, the scripts will probably want to decode the URL from an
env. variable to escape restrictions anyway.

Also, I've changed the Parse-header line to Gateway-protocol, which can be the
version of the protocol the script complies to, and whether it wants to send
its own HTTP header. This is important for future modifications, and seems
more flexible.

Outstanding gray area:

Sending the whole header to the script. Tony has had problems, and I
agree that all of those byte operations keeping the data from the stream
will probably cause problems. Should we send the header, or have the server
make its information available somehow? What will be used except Accept?

Are there any other gray areas still out there? Any objections to any part
of the document? I'd like to get coding soon.

--Rob