“A common mistake, responsible for many HTTP implementations problems, is to think this is equivalent to a filename within a computer system. This is wrong. URIs have, conceptually, nothing to do with a file system. One should remember that at all times when dealing with the World Wide Web.”
So why do most HTTP servers still heavily rely on the filesystem dictating URL’s?
This not only tends to create Uncool URI’s, but also makes it seem logical for filebased dynamic content (more on that in my previous post).
A http server, actually every server should be nothing more then a wrapper for modules which handle requests of clients.
The server would only limit itself to a very selected amount of functions
- Handling connections
- Exposing an API for the protocol which the modules can us
- Hosting modules
On startup the server loads modules and binds them to certain URL. Modules remain persistant in the memory and are just signalled a request is made passing the module an API to handle the request.
I’ll be busy exploring the posibilities to implement this.. there will be more about this.