[Server-devel] Reverse proxies on the XS

[Ivan Krstić]

On Mar 9, 2008, at 1:04 AM, Martin Langhoff wrote:
> But you can't count on the upstream project to be producing good  
> caching headers - they wouldn't be able to use it on the Internet.


This is far too strong a statement to stand without qualification.  
It's one thing to say browsers might ignore cache control headers and  
re-issue requests they shouldn't, causing unnecessary traffic. It's  
another thing entirely to say that you believe applications should  
intentionally omit cache control headers because it might break the web.

In a previous life, I built a non-trivial chunk of backend  
architecture for one of the largest websites in existence. To my  
knowledge, we were never burned by using cache control headers. It's  
certainly possible you can convince me this is a bad strategy, but I'm  
trying to make sure you understand there's a burden of proof here;  
shunning standards on account of hand-waving about things that might  
hypothetically break is a bad idea, and doubly so when building a new  
platform.

--
Ivan Krstić <krstic at solarsail.hcs.harvard.edu> | http://radian.org