Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol
The Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP for short) is a protocol for controlling, monitoring, and diagnosing coffee pots. It is specified in RFC 2324, published on 1 April 1998 [1] as part of an April Fools prank.[2] The wording of the protocol made it clear that it wasn't entirely serious; noting, for example, "there is a strong, dark, rich requirement for a protocol designed espressoly [sic] for the brewing of coffee" that included a pun on the word "espresso."
Despite the joking nature of its origins, or perhaps because of it, the protocol has remained as a minor presence online. The editor Emacs includes a fully functional implementation of it,[3] and a number of bug reports exist complaining about Mozilla's lack of support for the protocol.[4] Ten years after the publication of HTCPCP, the Web-Controlled Coffee Consortium (WC3) published a first draft of "HTCPCP Vocabulary in RDF"[5] in analogy of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) "HTTP Vocabulary in RDF".[6]
Commands and replies
HTCPCP is an extension of HTTP. HTCPCP requests are identified with the URI scheme coffee:
(or the corresponding word in any other of the 29 listed languages) and contain several additions to the HTTP methods:
BREW or POST |
Causes the HTCPCP server to brew coffee. |
GET |
Retrieves coffee from the HTCPCP server. |
PROPFIND |
Finds out metadata about the coffee. |
WHEN |
Says "when", causing the HTCPCP server to stop pouring milk into the coffee (if applicable). |
It also defines two error responses:
406 Not Acceptable |
The HTCPCP server is unable to brew coffee for some reason; the response should indicate a list of acceptable coffee types. |
418 I'm a teapot |
The HTCPCP server is a teapot; the resulting entity may be short and stout. Demonstrations of this behaviour exist.[7][8][9] |
See also
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
References
- ^ Network Working Group – Request for Comments: 2324
- ^ Laura DeNardis (30 September 2009). Protocol Politics: The Globalization of Internet Governance. MIT Press. pp. 27–. ISBN 978-0-262-04257-4. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
- ^ Emacs extension: coffee.el
- ^ Bug 46647 – (coffeehandler) HTCPCP not supported (RFC2324) at bugzilla.mozilla.org
- ^ Chief Arabica (Web-Controlled Coffee Consortium): HTCPCP Vocabulary in RDF – WC3 RFC Draft 01 April 2008. Accessed 17 August 2009.
- ^ Johannes Koch et al (editors): "HTTP Vocabulary in RDF". Accessed 17 August 2009.
- ^ HTTP 418 implemented on BBC CBeebies
- ^ Implementing Error 418
- ^ Error 418 implemented