I am glad that this topic has come up -- I have been trying to access
the wrec mail archives for the past couple weeks in order to figure out
why "transparent proxy" was being used for an element that is neither
transparent (according to HTTP) nor a proxy (according to any traditional
definition of that term, including HTTP's).
HTTP has always used "gateway" to refer to an intermediary that was
not known to the client. Yes, I know that gateway is also an overused
term, but the reason it was used is that all of the HTTP protocol
requirements are the same for HTTP-to-HTTP gateways as for HTTP-to-other
gateways, whereas they are considerably different from the protocol
requirements for a proxy which, by definition and accepted practice,
is an intermediary *chosen* by the client.
I don't buy the argument that "transparent proxy" is the common term
for this in the industry. I am in this industry and yet I have never
heard that term used outside a wrec-related discussion, aside from its
use to indicate a non-transforming proxy of HTTP content within RFC 2616.
Given that the definition conflicts with that of "proxy" under HTTP and
therefore conflicts with the HTTP protocol requirements placed on a
proxy, I think it is foolish to use this term within specifications
that are supposed to be subsidiary to the HTTP standard. It therefore
doesn't make sense for an IETF RFC to recommend that it be used within
the taxonomy.
A new term should be created; one that doesn't conflict with the
existing protocol specifications, and preferably one that doesn't
conflict with its meaning in English. It doesn't have to match the
marketing terms -- it just needs to be consistent within the standards.
BTW, the mail archive at <ftp://cs.utk.edu/pub/wrec> has been
inaccessible for weeks. Is there another one not listed in the
charter?
...........................................................
Roy T. Fielding, Chief Scientist fielding@ebuilt.com
eBuilt, Inc. tel:+1.949.609.0000
9401 Jeronimo Rd., Suite 100 fax:+1.949.609.0001
Irvine, CA 92618 USA http://www.eBuilt.com
...........................................................
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