HTTP Partial Get - The Point

Got so into blogging the "how" in the last post that I forgot about the "why", although I hope that's fairly obvious.

The W3C puts it like this:

The partial GET method is intended to reduce unnecessary network usage

and this:

A server MAY ignore the Range header. However, HTTP/1.1 origin servers and intermediate caches ought to support byte ranges when possible, since Range supports efficient recovery from partially failed transfers, and supports efficient partial retrieval of large entities.

I.e.

1. Keep the Internet clean (hear that, spammers?)
2. Speed up client requests.

I'm sure I had a point, but it's gone. The thought of all the crap floating around in the ether has depressed me too much to think. I think I need to see Marvin to cheer me up.

BTW our web hosting company honours ranges so perhaps it's not all that bad.