This specification makes heavy use of the augmented BNF and generic constructs defined by David H. Crocker for RFC 822 [7]. Similarly, it reuses many of the definitions provided by Nathaniel Borenstein and Ned Freed for MIME [5]. We hope that their inclusion in this specification will help reduce past confusion over the relationship between HTTP/1.0 and Internet mail message formats.
The HTTP protocol has evolved considerably over the past four 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, 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 aspects of the protocol for early versions of this specification.
Paul Hoffman contributed sections regarding the informational status of this document and Appendices C and D.
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 Harald Tveit Alvestrand
Keith Ball Brian Behlendorf
Paul Burchard Maurizio Codogno
Mike Cowlishaw Roman Czyborra
Michael A. Dolan John Franks
Jim Gettys Marc Hedlund
Koen Holtman Alex Hopmann
Bob Jernigan Shel Kaphan
Martijn Koster Dave Kristol
Daniel LaLiberte Paul Leach
Albert Lunde John C. Mallery
Larry Masinter Mitra
Jeffrey Mogul Gavin Nicol
Bill Perry Jeffrey Perry
Owen Rees Luigi Rizzo
David Robinson Marc Salomon
Rich Salz Jim Seidman
Chuck Shotton Eric W. Sink
Simon E. Spero Robert S. Thau
Francois Yergeau Mary Ellen Zurko
Jean-Philippe Martin-Flatin