RFC 2324 (rfc2324) - Page 2 of 10

Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1

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RFC 2324                       HTCPCP/1.0                   1 April 1998


   This document specifies a Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol
   (HTCPCP), which permits the full request and responses necessary to
   control all devices capable of making the popular caffeinated hot
   beverages.

   HTTP 1.1 ([RFC 2068]) permits the transfer of web objects from origin
   servers to clients. The web is world-wide.  HTCPCP is based on HTTP.
   This is because HTTP is everywhere. It could not be so pervasive
   without being good. Therefore, HTTP is good. If you want good coffee,
   HTCPCP needs to be good. To make HTCPCP good, it is good to base
   HTCPCP on HTTP.

   Future versions of this protocol may include extensions for espresso
   machines and similar devices.

2. HTCPCP Protocol

   The HTCPCP protocol is built on top of HTTP, with the addition of a
   few new methods, header fields and return codes.  All HTCPCP servers
   should be referred to with the "coffee:" URI scheme (Section 4).

2.1 HTCPCP Added Methods

2.1.1 The BREW method, and the use of POST

   Commands to control a coffee pot are sent from client to coffee
   server using either the BREW or POST method, and a message body with
   Content-Type set to "application/coffee-pot-command".

   A coffee pot server MUST accept both the BREW and POST method
   equivalently.  However, the use of POST for causing actions to happen
   is deprecated.

   Coffee pots heat water using electronic mechanisms, so there is no
   fire. Thus, no firewalls are necessary, and firewall control policy
   is irrelevant. However, POST may be a trademark for coffee, and so
   the BREW method has been added. The BREW method may be used with
   other HTTP-based protocols (e.g., the Hyper Text Brewery Control
   Protocol).

2.1.2 GET method

   In HTTP, the GET method is used to mean "retrieve whatever
   information (in the form of an entity) identified by the Request-
   URI." If the Request-URI refers to a data-producing process, it is
   the produced data which shall be returned as the entity in the
   response and not the source text of the process, unless that text
   happens to be the output of the process.



Masinter                     Informational
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