15 Aug
2021
15 Aug
'21
11:36 a.m.
On Sun, Aug 15, 2021 at 01:29:37AM -0400, J. David Bryan via cctalk wrote:
The option in question is called "range requests" and is documented in the
original HTTP/1.1 standard from way back in 1997. Any web server worth its
salt should support it automatically when serving static files. It's used
for resuming downloads, for example.
[...]
On Sunday, August 15, 2021 at 12:55, Kevin Parker
wrote:
[...]
...but on my
limited understanding it required support from the web
server to actually give effect to this.
I believe that's right. At least all
of the servers I used seemed to
support this option. Assuming one only looks at a few pages, it would
certainly reduce the
amount of data served, though, of course, if one requested the entire
file, it would actually be a slight disadvantage.
A larger disadvantage is the pause to download the next page when leafing
through a PDF, which can be quite distracting to people who can read without
moving their lips.
[...]
As you say, it requires server support, and to be
honest I've not checked
recently to see if servers bother byte-serving anymore. [...]
If a server lacks support for range requests, it is either very old or a
small hobby project, and shouldn't be let anywhere near the public Internet.