Fact of the Day : In computing terms what does http stand for? (from A Dictionary of the Internet )
“Hypertext Transfer Protocol” This protocol, commonly known as HTTP, is one of the most important protocols used on the Internet. It is used when a browser communicates with a Web server . For example, when the user of a browser clicks a mouse on a hyperlink in a Web page the browser sends a message to the Web server which contains the file referenced in the link to ask for the file to be retrieved.
A typical message would be GET /findpage.html HTTP / 1.0. This informs the server that the client browser would like to retrieve the file findpage.html in order to display it, and that the version of HTML that the client currently understands is 1.0.
This is an example of one of the most popular commands in the HTTP protocol, the GET command; there are a number of others which, for example, are concerned with forms processing. The server also uses commands from the repertoire of commands within the HTTP protocol to send messages back to the browser.
For example, the first line of a response from a server to a request from a browser might be HTTP/1.1 200 OK. This tells the browser that its request (usually a request for a Web page to be sent) has been correctly processed and that the server is using version 1.1 of HTTP.
The number 200 is an example of an HTTP status code which gives an indication of the status of the request; 200 indicates that the request was communicated successfully. HTTP is a stateless protocol: a protocol where each command has no knowledge of any previous command. There are currently two version of HTTP: 1.0 and 1.1. The vast majority of browsers now support version 1.1. See also cookie, Web server, and Common Gateway Interface .
How to cite this entry:
"Hypertext Transfer Protocol" A Dictionary of the Internet. Darrel Ince. Oxford University Press, 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 6 August 2011
