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.