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So servers will now have to support HTTP/3, HTTP/2, HTTP/1.1, HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/0.9. Is added complexity worth it though?

by mojuba 5y ago

remus 5y ago
It's not a requirement to support all of them, unless there's some radical change in the landscape of the web I imagine clients will continue to support HTTP/1.1 for a long time to come.
- mojuba 5y ago
  At least HTTP/1.x is the default for command line testing and debugging. I'm a bit worried we'll lose testability of servers as we add more and more layers on top of 1.x. Say it works with `curl` for me, what are the guarantees it will work the same way over HTTP/2 and /3 multiplexers?
  - jrockway 5y ago
    curl already supports HTTP/2 and HTTP/3. It's true that you miss out on "telnet example.com 80" and typing "GET /", but that honestly hasn't been valid since HTTP/1.1 replaced HTTP/1.0. To some extent this all sounds to me like "I hate screws, they render my trusty hammer obsolete". That's true, but there are also great screw driving tools.
    - NoGravitas 5y ago
      You could still do valid HTTP/1.1 over nc or telnet, or 'openssl s_client' if you needed TLS; it was just a matter of you knowing the protocol, and the minimum required headers for your use-case. (That said, curl is generally a better choice.)
      - Dylan16807 5y ago
        > or 'openssl s_client' if you needed TLS Which sites tend to need. I'm sure someone can make an equivalent to that. Maybe even just a wrapper around curl...
    - otabdeveloper4 5y ago
      The only difference between HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1 is having to send the 'Host:' header.
illys 5y ago
Clients will have to, server may stick to a version as long as that specific version is not discarded by the organization running the standard.
alimbada 5y ago
I'm not familiar with the specs but your question implies that each spec is independent of the others whereas I would assume that e.g. if you support HTTP/3 then you inherently support all previous specs too.
vlmutolo 5y ago
I imagine the industry will settle on H/1.1 for backward compatibility and simplicity, and H/3 for performance.

So servers will now have to support HTTP/3, HTTP/2, HTTP/1.1, HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/0.9. Is added complexity worth it though?

by mojuba 5y ago

So servers will now have to support HTTP/3, HTTP/2, HTTP/1.1, HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/0.9. Is added complexity worth it though?

remus 5y ago

It's not a requirement to support all of them, unless there's some radical change in the landscape of the web I imagine clients will continue to support HTTP/1.1 for a long time to come.

mojuba 5y ago
At least HTTP/1.x is the default for command line testing and debugging. I'm a bit worried we'll lose testability of servers as we add more and more layers on top of 1.x. Say it works with `curl` for me, what are the guarantees it will work the same way over HTTP/2 and /3 multiplexers?
- jrockway 5y ago
  curl already supports HTTP/2 and HTTP/3. It's true that you miss out on "telnet example.com 80" and typing "GET /", but that honestly hasn't been valid since HTTP/1.1 replaced HTTP/1.0. To some extent this all sounds to me like "I hate screws, they render my trusty hammer obsolete". That's true, but there are also great screw driving tools.
  - NoGravitas 5y ago
    You could still do valid HTTP/1.1 over nc or telnet, or 'openssl s_client' if you needed TLS; it was just a matter of you knowing the protocol, and the minimum required headers for your use-case. (That said, curl is generally a better choice.)
    - Dylan16807 5y ago
      > or 'openssl s_client' if you needed TLS Which sites tend to need. I'm sure someone can make an equivalent to that. Maybe even just a wrapper around curl...
  - otabdeveloper4 5y ago
    The only difference between HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1 is having to send the 'Host:' header.

illys 5y ago

Clients will have to, server may stick to a version as long as that specific version is not discarded by the organization running the standard.

alimbada 5y ago

I'm not familiar with the specs but your question implies that each spec is independent of the others whereas I would assume that e.g. if you support HTTP/3 then you inherently support all previous specs too.

vlmutolo 5y ago

I imagine the industry will settle on H/1.1 for backward compatibility and simplicity, and H/3 for performance.