CODEWITHSUNDEEP
httpnetwork-programmingnetwork-protocols
neoevoke
neoevoke

Reputation: 744

Why HTTP_REFERER is single r, not HTTP_REFERRER?

Sometimes my facebook friend confuses HTTP_REFERER and HTTP_REFERRER, because in the dictionary there is referrer only. Why does that misspelled standard protocol define, and why they don't try to correct the bug?

Upvotes: 9

Views: 4514

Answers (3)

Royi Namir
Royi Namir

Reputation: 148624

You may have noticed the word “referrer” is misspelled as “referer”. Unfortunately it made into the official HTTP specifications like that and got stuck.

Upvotes: 1

Ron Sijm
Ron Sijm

Reputation: 8758

See wikipedia

The misspelling referer originated in the original proposal by computer scientist Phillip Hallam-Baker to incorporate the field into the HTTP specification.[1] The misspelling was set in stone by the time of its incorporation into the standards document Request for Comments (RFC) 1945; document co-author Roy Fielding has remarked that neither "referrer" nor the misspelling "referer" were recognized by the standard Unix spell checker of the period.[2] "Referer" has since become a widely used spelling in the industry when discussing HTTP referrers; usage of the misspelling is not universal, though, as the correct spelling of "referrer" is used in some web specifications such as the Document Object Model.

Upvotes: 6

sagi
sagi

Reputation: 5747

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_referrer

Origin of the term referer

The misspelling referer originated in the original proposal by computer scientist Phillip Hallam-Baker to incorporate the field into the HTTP specification.[1] The misspelling was set in stone by the time of its incorporation into the standards document Request for Comments (RFC) 1945; document co-author Roy Fielding has remarked that neither "referrer" nor the misspelling "referer" were recognized by the standard Unix spell checker of the period.[2] "Referer" has since become a widely used spelling in the industry when discussing HTTP referrers; usage of the misspelling is not universal, though, as the correct spelling of "referrer" is used in some web specifications such as the Document Object Model.

Upvotes: 21

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