[Python-ideas] HTTP compression support for http.server

[Chris Barker]

The opinion of some random guy on the list...

On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 12:15 AM, Pierre Quentel <pierre.quentel at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I have been suggested to require feedback from core devs :
> - should HTTP compression be supported ?
>

Yes. You are quite right, it's pretty standard stuff these days.


> - if so, should it be supported by default ? It is the case in the PR,
> where a number of content types, eg text/html, are compressed if the user
> agent accepts the gzip "encoding"
>

I'm pretty wary of compression happening by default -- i.e. someone runs
exactly the same code with a newer version of Python, and suddenly some
content is getting compressed.

- if not, should the implementation of http.server be adapted so that
> subclasses could implement it ? For the moment the only way to add it is to
> modify method send_head() of SimpleHTTPRequestHandler
>

sure -- though it would be nice for folks to be able to use compression
without going through that process.

The implementation is based on a list of types to compress
> (SimpleHTTPServer.compressed_types) that can be modified at will, eg set
> to the empty list to disable compression.
>

How about having it be an empty list by default and have one or more lists
of common types be pre-populated and available in the SimpleHTTPServer
namespace. that is:

SimpleHTTPServer.compressed_types =
SimpleHTTPServer.standard_compressed_types

Or may be a method to turn on the "standard" set -- though if it really is
simply a list, better to expose that so it's obvious that you can create
your own list or examine and edit the existing one(s).

Thanks for doing this -- nice feature!

-CHB


-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
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