7 ms·

I'll just leave this here for you: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7231#section-5.5.2 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7231#section-5.5.2

jrockway 5y ago
That's a good one. Since legacy code is less likely to change than the English language, I just call it a "referer" in writing unrelated to HTTP. That way, I'm never confused. (Everyone else? Good luck.)
- inopinatus 5y ago
  I once saw this implemented as a regex. Unfortunately the regex was refer*er. “Tests pass, ship it”
  - exikyut 5y ago
    The tests clearly did not include spinning up an HTTP server and actually using the correctly-spelled header (as per correct English), then.
  - dqv 5y ago
    I don't know enough about overflows, but that could theoretically be exploited, right? referrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrer
  - zeusk 5y ago
    inb4 refeer (should've used referr?er)
    - xmprt 5y ago
      I also feel like this is a buffer overflow waiting to happen. If somehow someone makes the header length way longer than expected (eg. referrrrrrrrrrrrrrer).
      - jsjohnst 5y ago
        ? is 0 or 1 instances of the preceding character, so referrrrrrrrrrrrrrer wouldn’t match /referr?er/, only referer or referrer. Proof: https://regex101.com/r/s56ebD/1 https://regex101.com/r/s56ebD/1
        xmprt 5y ago
        I'm replying to the grandparent comment. I said "Also" meaning I was adding onto your comment.
- dhosek 5y ago
  I used to do technical writing and for some software that I wrote the manual and help system for, one of the menu items was misspelled. I spelled the word correctly in the text describing its functionality, but whenever I referred (so to speak) to it directly as the menu item to be selected, I kept the misspelling (this was the early 90s, the days of people saying non-ironically that they couldn't find the "any" key on their computer).
  - grenoire 5y ago
    Pretty sure people still can't find the any key, we just stopped asking them to!
    - curryst 5y ago
      Yep, I get some prompts now that say "Press the $X key" (often space), but will actually proceed if you hit any key. It always give me a touch of chuckles when I think about why they named a specific key then.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
dhosek 5y ago
Lets not forget the misspelling of guillemet as guillemot that is now firmly embedded into PostScript and Adobe software with no chance of ever being fixed. Unicode sidestepped the issue by naming the characters RIGHT/LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK.
- Someone 5y ago
  Unicode also documents its mistakes in technote 27 “Known Anomalies in Unicode Character Names” (https://unicode.org/notes/tn27/ https://unicode.org/notes/tn27/), with remarks such as “U+034F COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER The name does not describe the function of this character. Despite its name, it does not join graphemes” “The use of the spelling lamda derives from ISO 10646. This does not mean that it is more correct than lambda, merely that the spelling without the 'b' is the one used in the formal character names” “A spelling error: "brakcet" should be "bracket". A formal alias correcting this error has been defined”
  - asddubs 5y ago
    Why can't unicode change the names of the glyphs?
    - Someone 5y ago
      From that page: “Because Unicode Standard is a character encoding standard and not the Universal Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Character Identity, the stability and uniqueness of published character names is far more important than the correctness of the name. The published character names are normative for the purposes of the Unicode standard and the large number of other IT standards that reference it. These standards require stable identifiers and character names must therefore be immutable — any change of character names is almost as disruptive of the standards as changing code points for characters would be. Accordingly, the Unicode Consortium has adopted the Name Stability Policy, preventing changes in character names. As a result, errors in character names cannot be corrected. Instead, important character name anomalies anomalies (SIC) are documented with annotations in the Unicode Character Code Charts.” Also because somebody, somewhere, might have used those names to look up Unicode code points. Part of each Unicode release is a file named “UnicodeData.txt” (https://unicode.org/Public/13.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt https://unicode.org/Public/13.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), so those strings are public information.

jrockway 5y ago

That's a good one. Since legacy code is less likely to change than the English language, I just call it a "referer" in writing unrelated to HTTP. That way, I'm never confused. (Everyone else? Good luck.)

inopinatus 5y ago
I once saw this implemented as a regex. Unfortunately the regex was refer*er. “Tests pass, ship it”
- exikyut 5y ago
  The tests clearly did not include spinning up an HTTP server and actually using the correctly-spelled header (as per correct English), then.
- dqv 5y ago
  I don't know enough about overflows, but that could theoretically be exploited, right? referrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrer
- zeusk 5y ago
  inb4 refeer (should've used referr?er)
  - xmprt 5y ago
    I also feel like this is a buffer overflow waiting to happen. If somehow someone makes the header length way longer than expected (eg. referrrrrrrrrrrrrrer).
    - jsjohnst 5y ago
      ? is 0 or 1 instances of the preceding character, so referrrrrrrrrrrrrrer wouldn’t match /referr?er/, only referer or referrer. Proof: https://regex101.com/r/s56ebD/1 https://regex101.com/r/s56ebD/1
      - xmprt 5y ago
        I'm replying to the grandparent comment. I said "Also" meaning I was adding onto your comment.
dhosek 5y ago
I used to do technical writing and for some software that I wrote the manual and help system for, one of the menu items was misspelled. I spelled the word correctly in the text describing its functionality, but whenever I referred (so to speak) to it directly as the menu item to be selected, I kept the misspelling (this was the early 90s, the days of people saying non-ironically that they couldn't find the "any" key on their computer).
- grenoire 5y ago
  Pretty sure people still can't find the any key, we just stopped asking them to!
  - curryst 5y ago
    Yep, I get some prompts now that say "Press the $X key" (often space), but will actually proceed if you hit any key. It always give me a touch of chuckles when I think about why they named a specific key then.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

dhosek 5y ago

Lets not forget the misspelling of guillemet as guillemot that is now firmly embedded into PostScript and Adobe software with no chance of ever being fixed. Unicode sidestepped the issue by naming the characters RIGHT/LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK.

Someone 5y ago
Unicode also documents its mistakes in technote 27 “Known Anomalies in Unicode Character Names” (https://unicode.org/notes/tn27/ https://unicode.org/notes/tn27/), with remarks such as “U+034F COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER The name does not describe the function of this character. Despite its name, it does not join graphemes” “The use of the spelling lamda derives from ISO 10646. This does not mean that it is more correct than lambda, merely that the spelling without the 'b' is the one used in the formal character names” “A spelling error: "brakcet" should be "bracket". A formal alias correcting this error has been defined”
- asddubs 5y ago
  Why can't unicode change the names of the glyphs?
  - Someone 5y ago
    From that page: “Because Unicode Standard is a character encoding standard and not the Universal Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Character Identity, the stability and uniqueness of published character names is far more important than the correctness of the name. The published character names are normative for the purposes of the Unicode standard and the large number of other IT standards that reference it. These standards require stable identifiers and character names must therefore be immutable — any change of character names is almost as disruptive of the standards as changing code points for characters would be. Accordingly, the Unicode Consortium has adopted the Name Stability Policy, preventing changes in character names. As a result, errors in character names cannot be corrected. Instead, important character name anomalies anomalies (SIC) are documented with annotations in the Unicode Character Code Charts.” Also because somebody, somewhere, might have used those names to look up Unicode code points. Part of each Unicode release is a file named “UnicodeData.txt” (https://unicode.org/Public/13.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt https://unicode.org/Public/13.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), so those strings are public information.