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Book:   HTTP: The Definitive Guide
Subject:   HTTP: The Definitive Guide Review
Date:   2003-08-26 05:00:40
From:   Alex Belt of the Columbia Java Users Group
Rating:  StarStarStarStarStar

As its name states, this book is a definitive guide. It provides in depth coverage of all important HTTP information in use today, ranging from the basic communications protocol, to cache control, proxies, and security mechanisms. It’s extremely well written in clear and easy to understand terms.


The organization of the book is one reason I gave it only 4 tarsiers instead of 5. Material on proxies, and especially cache control, was spread through the book, rather than being located in any one area. While the basics of these are important to understanding some of the considerations in writing an HTTP application, a different organizational structure may have suited the material better.


This book is a great teaching and reference book for learning HTTP, but if you are not planning on running your own HTTP server, especially a proxy or caching server, a lot of this book is overkill. I’m sure I’ll be referring to it in the future for various other kinds of HTTP information.

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